Hermione rushed to transfigure a coffee table into a proper hospital bed for Severus in her rooms and dimmed the lights as his body floated, unconscious, beside her. She knocked him out before floating him to her rooms and putting extra wards into place. His hand hung limply in space, a trail of blood dribbling sickly onto the stone of her floor with a soft drip, drip, drip….

She lowered his huge form onto the bed and quickly got to work, noticing his breathing was starting to quicken again. Her charm wasn’t going to hold for long, he was already rousing. She forced some pain potion down his throat before he could protest and watched as his stiffened muscles relaxed. She slowly ran her wand down his shirt, the buttons popping loose as she did and assessed the damage. He was a wreck of rotten flesh, burns, and cuts. She knew which side of the war he was on currently, so she knew he wasn’t in trouble for anything good. Whatever he had done, it was probably not to the satisfaction of his master.

The thought of this young boy kneeling before the Dark Lord made Hermione sick. She knew he wanted to be there, but she knew he would change sides eventually. Why? She didn’t know. But something had to set him over the edge and make him join Dumbledore, maybe this was his turning point. Hermione eyed the horrible mess that would take her hours to heal, she rather doubted that any amount of pain would make Severus Snape change alliances. No, he would need something close to him to change. And she really hadn’t seen much from her short time interacting with him.

She accioed a balm from her personal stores and anxiously eyed his unconscious face. She would need to apply this to all of his burns and it would be incredibly painful, surely he would wake up during this and be in a murderous fit. Maybe she should just knock him out for the duration of the healing? That was against the code of ethics, however.

She sighed and steeled her reserve. You can do this. You are Hermione Jean Granger, brightest witch of your age. Severus Snape is not going to scare you into submission! She divested him of his shirt and pants and globbed the salve onto her fingers. Her eyes raked over his body and she quickly decided to start at his hands, which were horribly burned.

She gently lifted his hand into her own and started to massage the salve into his skin. His skin was papery and crisp, blood seeped onto her fingers and mixed into the salve as she massaged the magical potion in. She watched his dark brows pinch together and his lips purse in pain. As she massaged, the skin started to pull together and tender new skin formed where the burnt black was before. It shined in the dim light and she knew she would need to keep it moist over the next couple days, which meant she would have a surly roommate for a while.

She made her way up his arm and when she finished with that, she laid his arm out to the side, so she would have better access to his ribs. They were badly burned and had a deep cut running along them. She cast the spell she taught Lupin on the cut and began to massage the salve into his side. His body convulsed as she massaged the salve into the area the cut was, she knew that must be especially tender. She followed the burn down to his hip bone and began to massage the potion into the skin covering the bone until a large hand shot out and gripped hers tightly.

Blood seeped down from the burnt hand onto hers and she whipped her head around to look at the glinting black eyes of Severus Snape. “What…do you think you are doing, Miss Cresswell?”

Hermione slapped some salve onto the hand that was gripping hers and rubbed it into the cracked, blackened skin, the boy hissed and jerked his hand away, rubbing it tenderly. “You’ve been badly burned, Severus. Amongst other things, I’m not really sure how they happened. Dark curses, if I had to guess. Either way, you need to be healed, and you can’t afford to have Pomfrey see that mark on your arm.” She tilted her head towards his hand that he was gingerly rubbing.

Severus eyed her suspiciously and then examined his right arm that was healed with bright pink skin. He looked down at the rest of his body and saw the burns then eyed the salve. He sneered at her with a look of stubbornness she could only compare to a toddler, “I can do it myself.”

Hermione gave him a dubious look, “Go ahead, but you’ll be here all night. Especially since it hurts horribly when applied. But you go ahead and try.”

Snape gave her a dark look before ripping the jar from her hands and scooping some of the salve out and smearing it onto his chest. Hermione turned and went over to personal stores to grab a phial of something, turning away from what she was sure would be quite the show. He yelped in pain then coughed to cover it up and Hermione was glad she was turned away from him so that her small smile of laughter was undiscovered by Snape. A few moments later and she heard him hiss and a loud thud of him hitting something with his fist then, “Fuck!”

“You doing alright, Mr. Snape?” Hermione turned to see him examining his fist in frustration. He had popped open the new skin by slamming it down on the bed so hard.

Snape grimaced as blood slid down his arm, “Oh, just ducky.” He said with a growl.

Hermione couldn’t help the little giggle that escaped her, and she walked over to him and pulled his hand to her, easily healing his hand, once again.

“Are you enjoying my pain, Cresswell?” He growled, his features dark as he glared at her.

She gave him an amused smile and patted his hand, “Of course not, Severus, just your ridiculous stubbornness.”

He held her stare with his dark glare for several more moments, but Hermione didn’t back down. After a while, he finally pushed the jar back into her hands and laid back on the bed. Hermione had to bite her lip to keep from grinning as she went back to healing him. Serves him right to push a trained healer out of the way. He had to learn one way or the other.

She made quick work of the rest of his body…well, as quick as possible. He griped about her enjoying his pain too much and taking longer than necessary on purpose, but she ignored him and continued on her work. He was a terrible patient and she was happy to give him dreamless sleep at the end of the night.

When she was sure he was completely asleep, she went to take a shower and was glad tomorrow was Friday. She had shifts this weekend, but it meant she was half way through her work week. This week had turned out to be a much longer week than she was prepared for and she needed a break.

As she got into the shower, her thoughts kept drifting back to the boy sleeping in her rooms. He was so different from the dark, dour professor she knew from her time. This teenager was dark and sarcastic, but she also saw some of the teenage whining that was gone from the adult version. The adult version was imposing and refined, whereas teenage Severus didn’t quite have himself figured out yet. He scared her, but she also knew he was only a child. Whereas adult Snape was calculating and cutting, he was scary in a different way. Even the way he held himself was different. This Snape didn’t have the confidence that emulated off of the adult version. He was getting there, but he wasn’t there just yet. And she almost preferred that.

She got out of the shower and wrapped herself in a towel and quickly made her way to her bed, where she had left her pajamas. She changed into them, keeping her eyes on the teenager mere feet from her the entire time, not wanting him to rouse and see her naked. When she was clothed again, she made her way to his sleeping form and put one of her blankets over him. He shifted further under it in a snuggly cute way and she had to repress her snort.

She examined his face, his angular features and defined nose. Dark brows and eyelashes that swept over his cheeks as he slept. She could see a hint of stubble on his cheeks and almost laughed at the thought of Professor Snape with a beard. His angular cheekbones barely stuck out over the fluffy blanket he had pulled up to his face. His lips were a soft pink, thin but relaxed. His black hair was splayed over the pillow, and Hermione wanted to touch it, but knew that would be a breech of propriety. He really wasn’t that scary when he was sleeping. Or it was the fluffy blanket ruining his façade.

- - -

Hermione wrote a note excusing Severus from his classes on the hospital wing’s paper, not signing who it was from, and sent it to the professors and let him rest in her rooms while she was gone for her shift. When she returned, he was still fast asleep. She changed out his dressings and gave him more potions to expedite the healing process and got ready for her date with the Marauders. Tonight was the night she was supposed to meet them at the Hog’s Head for a drink and she was ready for a night out.

She riffled through her things, not knowing what to wear in this time. She didn’t have much that fit the bill for time appropriate apparel for the 70’s in the small amount of clothing she took with her. She decided on a pair of jeans that weren’t in style, but were close enough, and a red sweater. It was beginning to get chilly and the trek to Hogsmeade wasn’t a short one.

Hermione checked on Severus one more time, but he was sleeping soundly from what she could tell. She took her beaded bag with her just in case he woke up and decided to go snooping through her things, and left. She decided to take the short way that Harry found on the Marauder’s map in third year so that she could stop in the bookstore before heading to the Hog’s Head.

She hurried along the cobblestone path and into the small shop, lined floor to ceiling with books. She immediately felt more at home here than she had in ages as she traced her fingers lightly along the spines of the books as she walked down the aisles. The aisle narrowed and she tried to press herself into the bookshelf, but still ended up brushing into a rather tall wizard.

He turned to look at her and Hermione’s heart stopped. Amber eyes met grey ones and an annoyed look crossed the wizard’s face before one of intrigue. He turned completely, so that their bodies were just inches from each other in the narrow aisle, and his long, blond hair cascaded around his shoulders in pin-straight sheets.

Hermione’s own hair matched his and the similarity didn’t go unnoticed by the aristocrat. She wanted to shy away from him, but held her ground and smiled politely at him. “I’m sorry, the aisles are so narrow here-“

“Don’t worry about it, my dear. What is your name?” He extended out a hand to her.

Hermione gingerly put her hand in his, “Cresswell. My name is Acacia Cresswell. I’m a healer at Hogwarts.”

“It is a pleasure to finally meet you, Miss Cresswell. I am Lucius Malfoy. I’ve heard a great deal about you from a mutual friend, Severus.”

Severus has been talking about me to Lucius? “The pleasure is mine, then, if you’re a friend of Severus’.” Hermione looked around awkwardly, “I really must be going, though. I’m sorry. It was nice to meet you, Mr. Malfoy.”

His grey eyes glinted as she darted away. He looked like a Greek statue come to life in this time, tall and muscular with flawless skin and refined features. Hermione wanted to puke at the sight of him. She noticed that he wasn’t wearing a wedding band yet, so he mustn’t be married to Narcissa quite yet. But he must be getting close. And what a beautiful wedding it would be. She was astounded by how beautiful he looked and was jealous of Draco if that is what he was bound to look like in a few years.

She hurried out of the bookstore and made her way to the seedy bar at the end of Hogsmeade. She opened the rickety door with a creek and saw the group of friends was already there, waiting for her. Lily and James were sitting next to each other with Sirius next to James and Lupin and Peter across from Lily and James. Hermione smiled as they beckoned her over and pulled up a stool across the table from Sirius and next to Lupin and Lily.

“We were worried you weren’t going to show, Cresswell. With you being a fancy teacher and all, may be above us.” Sirius said with a smirk and wink before sipping his butterbeer.

“And she would be correct with that thought.” Lily said with a laugh. “But we’re glad you showed!”

“I went to the bookstore before I came here and I got caught up, I’m sorry I’m late-“

“Don’t be, just work on catching up.” Sirius pushed a butterbeer towards her and she gratefully took it. The warm liquid slid down her throat, heating her up from the inside out.

“How have you been, Acacia?” Lupin said quietly from beside her.

Hermione finished her sip of butterbeer and began talking to group of slightly buzzed teens. She fell into a comfortable conversation with them. It felt good to just relax and laugh again with people her own age. Even if they did think she was older than them. The night ran longer than what she had intended, but she didn’t want to go. She was having fun for the first time in a long time. Even if she was staring at the ghosts of her best friend’s parents.

She watched them interact and it was really sweet. He seemed to reach out for her all the time and they would hold hands without noticing. Lily would smile at him and he would rub her back. They seemed to always be connected somehow.

“Don’t think I didn’t notice you sneaking off from the last game, Cresswell. You didn’t stick around for the whole thing!” James pointed an accusatory finger at her, smiling.

Hermione gaped, “It was raining terribly! I needed to get some brewing done! I couldn’t see what was going on anyways! Next match, I will watch-“

“You had better, Cresswell, or we will have a major issue on our hands!” James laughed.

Hermione walked with the group back to the castle, staggering a bit from the butterbeer and having to hold on to Lupin’s arm to steady herself. She laughed at her own ridiculousness and assured him she would be find, but he insisted on escorting her to her rooms.

They walked in companionable silence down to the hospital wing and Hermione eventually stopped outside of the picture of a cat batting at a skull that marked her rooms. Lupin stopped and turned towards her and she awkwardly motioned to the picture meowing at her, “Well, this is my stop.”

Lupin rubbed the back of his neck and seemed to be looking at everything but her. “You sure you’re going to be alright, Acacia?”

Hermione snorted and waved him off, “Oh, yes, I’ve got loads of pepper up potion. I’ll be fine.”

He shuffled awkwardly and shoved his hands in the pockets of his stitched-up cardigan, “Goodnight, then, I guess…”

“Goodnight, Remus.” Hermione turned to leave but felt a hand wrap around her wrist and pull her into a hard chest. Suddenly, Lupin’s mouth was covering hers and his fingers tangled into her blonde hair.

Hermione stood there, shocked, until he pulled away with a small smile. “Thank you for teaching me that spell.”

She felt her eyes were wide and she was stiff in shock. She wasn’t sure what to do. Kissing her professor definitely wasn’t on her list of to-do’s for the night. He squeezed her hand and turned and left her, still frozen in shock, in the hall as he walked back to Gryffindor tower.

Hermione’s head was buzzing with more than the small amount of alcohol from the butterbeer now and she watched as Lupin rounded the corner. She turned back to the portrait on her wall and let herself into her rooms and stumbled into the firm, bare chest of Severus Snape.

She looked up into his dark eyes, seething with rage, and shied away from him. She pressed herself closer into the wall, however, there wasn’t much room to be had. “Did you have a good night with your new friends?"