Set in the year 2020. A touch of House, if you squint and turn your head sideways. Canon compliant through HBP.

Gratitude and good Karma go to Subversa, beta extraordinaire!

*SSHG*

A Good Morning

I cleaned my work space, glancing at the clock and planning the next seven hours. The potion in my tiny golden cauldron would require attention shortly after noon, so I didn’t have time to dawdle. Whatever sleep I could catch between now and returning to my laboratory at St Mungo’s was all I would get for the next thirty-six hours; my two dunderheads knew very well by now that they were never to touch any of my projects.

I’d been here since early yesterday afternoon, and the sun was now rising over London again as I prepared to end my work day. My notes were safely locked in my tiny office off the laboratory, and I hung my work robes on a peg inside the door. I took the coffee pot and was about to pour the excess down the drain, but then I thought better of it.

Surely I had a few minutes to spare.

She’d occasionally come in to beg a cup off me, rather than go up seven storeys to the tea room. She said she preferred my coffee to the bug juice they called tea up there. Though I’d never bothered with the tea room myself, I believed her. I didn’t want to take the time to make a fresh pot for her, even though it might be a good idea; I’d started this pot around nine o’clock last night. Well, if she didn’t like it, she could go up for some fresh bug juice herself. I tucked a couple of scrolls under my arm, held the mug in my hand, and warded my laboratory. The two slowcoaches the hospital called my assistants would be in some time after nine.

Not her, though. Even when she was tired, she opened her library at five o’clock every morning. The hospital allowed her a great deal of leeway in her hours, but I had to admire her work ethic.

Just as I’d begrudgingly admired so much about her for the last thirty years. I sighed as I entered the library.

‘Severus,’ Hermione said happily, looking up from her desk.

I sighed again, feeling my mouth curl up in a smile. Having had some problems with alcohol as a young man, I knew what addiction felt like: the craving for a feeling I couldn’t give myself. She didn’t even know she gave it to me and had been doing so from the day she took over the hospital library.

I enjoyed watching the Healers back away slightly as I delivered my potions to them for their patients. I loved how the patients -- especially those whose faces were familiar from sixteen years of teaching -- would cringe in their beds as I bent over them, using my expertise in Dark magic to diagnose the occasional problem that none of these young Healers could identify. It was good to have work and be appreciated. Knowing that I still intimidated the hell out of half of wizarding Britain was a bonus.

I hadn’t seen her in over a decade, that day she first came to St Mungo’s. She was unlocking the library with an ancient key and trembling hands as I was closing up my laboratory, one chilly winter morning nine years ago. I recognized her at once, though I hadn’t seen her in over a decade, and decided to have a bit of fun. I sneaked behind her and reached around, covered her hand with mine, and slid the key in the lock. She jumped, startled, but when she looked up, her immediate reaction was to smile. ‘Hello, Professor,’ she said, smiling as though she was actually happy to see me.

It had been terribly disconcerting at first; I wondered what was wrong with her. But her greetings never changed. Even when she looked tired or ill, she always greeted me as though the sight of me had made her day better … as though I hadn’t insulted and harassed her for the first six years of our acquaintance. I never managed to ask her how she could act this way around me. Perhaps I was afraid of the answer.

It was a mystery I hadn’t unravelled yet. All I knew now was that no day was complete until one of us had stopped by the other’s work space to visit, even if it was thirty seconds of small talk before work demanded my attention or hers again.

Hermione stood and placed a book on the shelf behind her, bringing my mind back to the present. What is it about her that makes me feel fifteen years old? I wondered as I crossed the room. The sunlight streamed through the enchanted window, setting the entire library alight. ‘Morning,’ I said, putting the mug on her desk.

She pounced on it with glee, taking a sip and wincing at the heat before turning her face up to kiss my cheek. Far be it from me to turn down a gesture like that; I dutifully bent over a bit so she could reach. She’d never done that before. ‘Thank you, Severus,’ she said with a sigh, leaning one hip against her desk. Her smile went a little crooked, and one eyebrow raised slightly; I’d grown to recognize that look over the last several years. ‘But is it never a good morning?’ she murmured in a teasing tone.

My heart fluttered a bit as I looked into those big, brown eyes. Her hair had silvered early; there was very little of the gold-brown I remembered from three decades before. But her eyes were the same: intelligent and friendly. I also leaned against the desk, folding my arms as I replied flippantly, ‘Only when you’re around.’ I raised an eyebrow for good measure … it wouldn’t do at all for her to know that what I’d said was true.

Sure enough, a gentle elbow prodded my left arm as she smiled and took another sip of coffee, and I smirked. ‘Has my loan request for Leonardo’s formulas come through yet?’ I asked.

She gave me a withering, exasperated look that no one else could possibly get away with. ‘I already told you, Severus Snape. I’ll bring it over as soon as I get it.’

‘What? Don’t you like my pestering you?’ I regretted it the moment I said it, scowling at myself. I liked pestering her far too much.

She hesitated, then said very quietly, ‘I like it.’

My heart began to hammer as I looked down at her. She was blushing; she was definitely blushing! As she slowly looked up at me, I saw everything I ever wanted in her face. I leaned over a bit -- slowly, to gauge her reaction -- and she smiled, standing a bit straighter, her gaze flickering down to my mouth.

That was what I’d been looking for. I bent over more, pressing my lips to hers. Hermione’s free hand clutched the front of my robes, and her breath shuddered backward as her mouth opened under mine. I put my arms around her and deepened the kiss as she scooted closer to me. She tasted of the coffee I’d brought her.

Though she seemed to be enjoying the kiss as much as I was, I ended it a few moments later. Her breath warmed my throat as we trembled in each other’s arms. Doubts were starting to creep in as the silence stretched between us -- had I made a mistake? What was I thinking? Had I ruined everything? -- but then her voice drifted up to me, saying, ‘Are you … free for dinner some time this weekend?’

My finger found one of the stray curls that had escaped from her bun. ‘Barring an outbreak of the dragon pox, yes.’

She rapped the top of her desk lightly with her knuckles. ‘You’re going home now?’

‘I need to rest for a few hours,’ I said. Nodding in the direction of my laboratory, I added, ‘So does my latest experiment.’

She smiled up at me, an invitation plainly written on her face. I kissed her once again and bid her goodbye, deciding that I’d stop by the library fifteen minutes before the potion had to be attended to. If she was alone, I could kiss her again. If she wasn’t alone, I could pester her about Leonardo’s book.

Win-win.

*SSHG*