Addicted to You

III

Hermione paced in the hall outside, anxiously biting her nails and fidgeting with the phone. She was a bad liar- she had been told that more frequent than to her liking, but she guessed she could pull it off over the phone. So she dialed Ron up and tried to sound as casual as she could.

"...it's a real mess over here, you know sweetie, and I'm just too busy cleaning out all the stuff. So, don't worry if I don't come over for a few days, ok?"

"Do you want any help with that?"

"No," she was quick to decline the offer. Playing the sympathy card she said, "I really need to do this by myself. All my parents' things are kinda reminding me of them. It's bringing back old memories...So, I was thinking maybe I should renovate? Give it a new look, so that I could, you know, have a fresh start."

"Whatever you need, babe. Love you."

She disconnected the call and sighed. Now it was time to face the other problem. All the things that she had been through during her school life seemed like a theme park compared to this. She would deal with a boggart to face her biggest fears ten times over, rather than facing what was on the other side of the door. Snape- she couldn't imagine how he would react and couldn't even fathom what it would be like to have him there. That man was just beyond her grasp of knowledge; she didn't know what to do and she hated not knowing. If only he came with an instruction manual, she could have learnt it by heart. But he came like a surprise and unfortunately, she wasn't very good at impromptu tests.

Snape was sitting up in bed, not all the way up but, leaning on some pillows; his curious eyes taking in the expanse of this stranger's room, where he found himself after he had woken up. His head snapped up as Hermione entered, his eyes settling on her with a curious mix of surprise, awe and confoundedness. His brain had registered the fact that she had taken care of him; after he couldn't go on anymore, his feet had involuntarily carried his body to a random house and dumped himself in front of it, and it thankfully had turned out to be her's. But he still couldn't process the 'why' part of the question.

Why didn't she alert the authorities? Why did she bring him in? Why did she bother patching him up? Why did she even care?

He stared at her dumbfounded, the wheels in his head spinning into motion and before he could utter another word, he was overcome by a coughing fit. She carefully approached his bed and helped him to a glass of water. He took it, but still gazed upon her suspiciously as he took tentative sips. Perhaps he was so unaccustomed to niceness that he was disbelieving in the face of the smallest display of humanity.

Hermione understood the reason for his speechlessness and chose to speak first. "How are you feeling now? Are you in pain? Is there something I can do? What do you need?"

Speaking was still hard, a croak came out of his mouth- the sound sour and fragile. He was still recovering and talking came as a rough grinding noise. It was so different from his normal silky baritone that was almost melancholic. It was still deep and sonorous but without the note of hostility she previously associated with him. Now, it evoked sympathy.
"I...appreciate whatever you did,...Ms. Granger. But I-"

"Please, sir," Hermione mitigated. "Call me Hermione. And I hope it's okay for me to call you Severus?"

Although Hermione still addressed Arthur as 'Mr.Weasley', out of respect, since he was her boyfriend's father- Sirius, Remus and the others insisted upon calling them by their first name. So she hoped he would be okay with it too, now that he wasn't her professor anymore. He, however, was not comfortable with it at all. His eyes darted to her face and his expression changed to one of displeasure. "I'm not...really capable of going away myself, otherwise do not have any doubt, I would have. But I'm afraid, I'm gonna have to ask you to leave." His voice was dangerously calm; in classes that tone usually came just seconds before he tore shreds off of whichever student had been unfortunate enough to incur his wrath.