Headmaster's Secret

The West Forest

Severus groaned as he sat up on the side of his bed. The sun had barely risen and he needed to do a patrol of the grounds. Kingsley wanted the grounds completely clear of remnants of the war. He was down to the West part of the Forbidden Forest and was going to be gone most of the day. He growled to himself. It was Sunday, supposed to be a nice day. He gritted his teeth as he got up. Since the war, he was starting to feel his age. 

He got ready in silence, thinking of last night with Hermione. They watched the fire for a while, not even bothering with the papers anymore. He conjured two arm chairs and they sat close, just enjoying each others company. He had never enjoyed spending more time with someone since Lily. Before he sent her back to her dormitory, he said something he never thought he'd say. Just thinking about it made him cringe. 

"I enjoy spending time with you," Severus stated in a low, almost embarrassed voice. 

Hermione had smiled and said she enjoyed their time together, too, but he felt she was being nice. He sneered at himself in the mirror as he brushed his hair. As he walked towards the West Forbidden Forest, he wondered what Hermione would be doing today. Working on lessons, her homework? Perhaps she's working on a letter to Weasley for the fifth time. He scoffed, thinking about Weasley getting to hold her in his arms. 

He didn't deserve to even breathe the same air as her. He kept wondering what she could possibly see in him. Maybe it was an underdog thing, or a pathetic thing. Perhaps since he defended her against Malfoy's insults she developed feelings for him then. Whatever the reason, Severus didn't think she should stay with him. He wanted to tell her to break up with him, but he knew that she would get angry at him and he'd most likely be forced to give her detention. 

"Sir?"

Severus turned to the voice. It was her. His mouth got unnecessarily dry as she smiled at him warmly. Much more warmly than she's ever in the past. He found himself grinning widely as she walked towards him. "Miss Granger," he greeted, clearing his throat. 

"Professor Snape," she retorted, shouldering her rucksack in hand. 

He glanced at it and her dirty hands. She must be gathering ingredients for lessons tomorrow. "Gathering ingredients?" he asked, motioning for her to walk ahead of him. 

She set along the path deeper into the forest at a leisurely pace. "Yeah, we are running low on certain items and I wanted to make sure we had plenty for the lesson tomorrow with the second years."

He knew they were running low on the rare ingredients. He'd have to write to various Apothecaries and have them mailed. "I noticed that last week when I had the 7th years working on their own potions. Thank you for gathering some of them." 

She bent down to gather some daisy roots and dandelion flowers in a small flower patch nearby and packed them nicely into her sack. "What are you doing here?" She asked after they set back on the path. 

Severus sighed annoyingly. "Kinglsey wanted the grounds inspected to make sure its all free of danger from the war. This was the last bit of grounds."

Nodding, she pointed absentmindedly to a nice patch of knottgrass by a small puddle. Severus followed to help gather some. They needed a fair amount of this. He was teaching polyjuice potion to the sixth years Tuesday. After they were satisfied with the amount of knottgrass they gathered, they headed to the empty hallow where Severus knew Voldemort settled waiting for Potter. 

The hallow was more spooky than Severus thought. The twisted tree roots under the far tree acted as a memorial to those who had been here. If Harry or Narcissa ever came back to this spot, they'd remember that day. He moved towards the tree roots, taking out his wand. Pointing it. He debated on reducto or diffindo. In the end, he settled on diffendo to simply cut the tree roots away.