And So It Goes

Prologue Storm Front

Hermione hated potions. It was just that simple. She could get everything absolutely perfect and it still wouldn't be "up to Mr. Malfoy's standard". Rubbish. Mr. Malfoy couldn't live up to her standard; it's just that blasted potions master was too busy favoring Slytherins to notice.

So there she sat. Located in the back row of the dungeon, she hoped that Ron had enough sense to not blow anything up today. Snape looked more foul than usual. As she added the last eye of newt, Hermione caught a glimpse of something out of the corner of her eye. Seamus was trying to discreetly flash a handful of fireworks at Ron. This was the last class before exams. Were they so intent on getting detention right before the holiday? Hermione gave Seamus a dirty look. He shot a look back that distinctly said, "I wasn't talking to you." She sat down with a book to study for her exams as the potion reduced, trying to ignore the impending mischief.

"Excuse me for a moment, Hermione, I think I need to go ask Seamus' opinion on this last potion ingredient." Ron's grin was breaking through his serious façade.

"Ronald Weasley," Hermione started in under her breath, "Do you want to get expelled half way through your six year? Look at Snape, he's ready to let someone have it and you seem determined that it be you."

As she was finishing this tirade, however, Ron slipped off. She put her nose back in the book. As she was beginning a new chapter she heard a loud bang erupt from the front of the room. Her eyes raised momentarily, just long enough to see that a large cloud of laughing gas was encompassing the Slytherins. In the midst of the chaos, Hermione failed to notice that Ron had left some of his ammo behind, tucked underneath her parchment.

The disarray began to settle around her, but Hermione didn't care. Her potion had another half hour until it would be ready and she was determined to make good use of the time. Just as she was finally getting her full concentration back the book was ripped from her hands. She jumped and looked up to find a certain ill-humored professor glaring down at her. He reached under her parchment and grabbed the laughing gas grenades that were protruding ever so slightly.

"Apparently everyone has decided to get in on the holiday frivolity this year," he sneered at her. "I should expect it of you, however, consorting with the Potter and Weasley crowd."

Shocked by the accusation Hermione simply stuttered and found herself frozen by his icy stare.

"No words of self defense? Twenty points from Gryffindor, Ms. Granger, and I will see you in detention tonight after dinner. I do hope you enjoy cleaning dungeons."

"Wait, that's not fair!" Hermione finally found her voice.

"You have been caught with the evidence and so you will be paying the consequences. Perhaps you should choose your friends more carefully." And with that he turned, his cape billowing behind him, and stalked toward his office.

"Hermione, we're so sorry," Ron and Seamus exclaimed, running over to her. "We never meant to-"

"Rob me of a critical night of studying for exams!?!" she yelled in a voice reminiscent of a howler.

From somewhere behind her a little voice, which sounded remarkably like Neville Longbottom's, said, "Well if anyone can afford to miss a little studying it's her."

* * *

Hermione dragged her feet. This was not at all a common thing for her. But the thought of spending a perfectly good evening stuffed in a dungeon with Snape was not her idea of a good time. Ron. What had he been thinking? He owed her for this.

She found herself hovering at the door to the potions room. Well, she was here. Might as well get this over with. The room was colder what usual. Between the natural chill of the evening that settled into the castle and the lack of warm bodies, she found herself pulling her robe tighter around her shoulders.

He was sitting at his desk. A variety of parchments were spread about and he appeared to be studying them intently. On the corner of his desk sat a plate with a half-eaten sandwich and some very limp steamed vegetables. A glass of hot pumpkin juice sat steaming at his right hand. As she got closer she caught a whiff and realized it wasn't just pumpkin juice. Hermione was first put off by the idea, but on second thought she understood how the cold down here could require a little something extra.

"Nice to see that you've decided to join me, Ms. Granger." Hermione frowned ever so slightly. She hadn't dawdled that much. "I've decided to relieve you of cleaning duty and allow you to file my research instead." He stood up unceremoniously and gestured for her to follow him into his office.

Inside there were piles of parchments covering every table in addition to the rather large desk. "This is my research from the last semester. With preparing the final exams I haven't had a chance to organize it yet." He then proceeded to explain to her his elaborate filing system. Hermione stood there nodding, thinking to herself all the while, here is a guy who needs a computer. "Oh, and Ms. Granger, there will be no magic used in your task this evening. To insure this I'll need your wand." He held out his hand expectantly. Hesitant to give this up, Hermione cautiously removed it from her robe and handed it to him.

The hours seemed to take days. Hermione would occasionally glance up from her filing and watch Snape as he worked in his storeroom. He seemed to be reorganizing ingredients used in memory potions. The cold was beginning to get to her. Her fingers ached and the tip of her nose felt as if it had frozen. Almost done. 80%. 90%. To keep herself awake through the monotony she calculated her progress in her head.

98%. 99%. 100%. There. Done. She looked up and paused to watch Snape as he continued his task. He had been working for hours without a break and showed no signs of stopping.

CRASH. Everything shook. Peeves. Undoubtedly wreaking havoc to irritate Filch again. Snape reached out to steady the bottle in front of him and then continued working without looking up. But as Hermione watched the shelves directly behind Snape began to rock. CRASH. He still didn't look up, apparently used to the disturbances. The shelves behind him were rocking more violently now. They were about to dump their glass jars full of Merlin-knows-what directly onto his head.

She reached instinctively for her wand. It wasn't there. Damn. He had it. Without thinking she ran into the storeroom. She reached up and pushed the offending jars back into place, running into Snape in the process.

He whirled around, nearly knocking her to the ground. "What exactly do you think you're doing, Ms. Granger?" he demanded, clearly quite irritated, "This is not the place for horseplay."

"The jars," Hermione replied, slightly out of breath, "They were going to fall on you." Suddenly aware of their close proximity, she took a step back to create more space between them.

"And you've suddenly forgotten you're a witch? What happened to your levitation skills I've heard so much about?"

Hermione frowned and remarked dryly, "You have my wand."

He stood taken aback for the briefest moment. "And you didn't consider telling me instead of rushing in to try and solve the problem single-handedly?"

"I didn't think..."

"Clearly. You, Ms. Granger, have been spending too much time with Mr. Potter, I'm afraid." Snape reached into his robe and pulled out her wand. Hermione snatched it from his hand before rushing out of the room.

* * *

Hermione went straight to her room. A usual fixture in the Gryffindor common room, she was too frustrated to deal with any interruptions tonight. She climbed the stairs higher and higher until she got to her single room at the top level of Gryffindor tower. Being a prefect had its privileges and, as much as Hermione like Parvati and Lavender, she really did relish having some space to herself.

Immediately Hermione went about collecting the books she would need for the night's study session. She piled them in neat stacks on her desk and then plopped down on her chair. But her mind wasn't ready to study. She blushed when she thought about how she had let Snape intimidate her like that. He was a professor, but he was also just a person. Having worked so closely with Dumbledore in the ongoing fight against Voldemort, Hermione was beginning to see eye to eye with the adults that surrounded her.

Now that she sat there thinking about it, she thought it odd that Snape's office had been so bare. Most of the professors had pictures of family or friends, or least pets. But his office had lacked any personal touches. One would think he'd have a picture with the Malfoys, for all that he favored Draco, but the whole scene had been quite generic.

Shaking her head, Hermione reached for her arithmancy book and opened it. Something was still nagging at the back of her mind, though. Looking up at the clock she suddenly realized how much time she'd lost in detention and decided she didn't have time for foolishness now. She could consider tonight's events later; now she had to work.

She suddenly felt a hand rest ever so gently on her shoulder. The person leaned down and buried their face in her hair, clearly inhaling her very scent. Turning, she could only see someone standing there in a black robe, a hood covering the face. Hermione tried to say something, but a hand went to her lips, silencing whatever she had to say. Curious to find out the identity of her visitor, Hermione stood, finding herself quite close to his body. The person was clearly a him and his breath was warm against her cheek.

He leaned down and kissed her ever so gently. Hermione found herself melting, draping her arms around his neck. He picked her up, carrying her delicately to the bed. Laying her down, he sat on the edge and leaned down to kiss her again...

But he suddenly cleared his throat. That was hardly romantic. Hermione started and realized that she had fallen asleep on her book. She had been dreaming, but then who-? The noise came again and Hermione looked around her room. As her eyes came to the door she found herself looking at a certain potions master. What was he doing here? Hermione knew about the secret passage ways that allowed teachers access to all the dormitories, but no one ever used them. She shook her head, trying to make sense of what she was seeing.

"Hard at work again, I see, Ms. Granger," He said as he strode in and walked up to her. In the back of her mind Hermione wondered if she'd been talking in her sleep. Agh, she hoped not. The very thought made her blush a deep crimson.

"What are you doing here?" She asked groggily, not at all concerned with formalities considering the fact that he was standing in her bedroom. What was he doing in her bedroom?

"I believe you have something of mine. I'd like it back if you don't mind," he said frankly.

Hermione couldn't figure out what he was talking about and stared at him blankly.

"In your haste to leave detention I offered you the wrong wand. I believe you are in possession of my wand, and I of yours."

Hermione blinked and reached into her robe. She pulled out a wand and realized that, indeed, she had snatched his in her rush out the door.

Standing to hand it back to him, she found him also taking a step closer so as to save her the trouble of getting up. For the second time that evening, Hermione found herself eye to eye with Professor Snape. This time they held the gaze for just a moment before he took a step back. He took the wand from her hand and set hers in its place. This done he turned to leave. After having taken a few steps, however, he stopped. Swiveling about he looked her in the eye once more and said, "I also meant to thank you for preventing the loss of some of my ingredients earlier this evening. They are quite valuable and would have been difficult to replace." This having been said, Professor Snape turned and made his typical dramatic exit, complete with billowing cape.

This evening was going nowhere. Hermione walked over to her door and, shutting it, went about readying herself for bed. If she was going to sleep, it might as well be time well spent in bed.

That night, as Hermione climbed into bed, she pulled the covers around her. As she drifted off it occurred to her that she had never seen the man's face in her dream. Probably just a representation of someone she wanted to meet. Her social life at Hogwarts lacked a dating relationship of any length. Her closeness to Harry and Ron scared off most boys. And if it didn't, Harry and Ron usually did the job themselves. ("You don't have any brothers, Hermione. Someone's got to look out for you!") Codswallop. She was never going to have a date with those two as her shadows.

While this hadn't really bothered her before, Hermione suddenly felt very alone in her bed. This was ridiculous, considering she had never not been alone in her bed. But somewhere, in the back of her mind, she suddenly wanted a warm body beside her, wanted it like she had never wanted anything before.

* * * * *

Chapter 1, available here in a few weeks, will fast forward us to seventh year. And in the mean time, keep an eye out for my first fic on Schnoogle.com, A Hope Too Far.

Credits: Here's to Billy Joel, whose song "And So It Goes" lends its title to this story (full lyrics will be provided as the story progresses). For all you curious parties, it is a gorgeous song and can be found on his "Storm Front" album, which is also the title for the prologue. Next, I'd like to thank Keyser Soze (AKA Lupinlover AKA Ashley) for inspiring me to write this story. Her story "Beyond the Silver Rainbow" (which can be found on www.fanfiction.net) is, I believe, one of the founding pieces of this ship and she has been quite encouraging of my endeavors.

Thank Yous: My fab betas are Nancy and Kris, who curtail my usage of the word just and tell me when my scenes are downright confusing. Thanks goes out to my husband, Mike, who is extremely patient with my newfound fanfic obsession. Also thanks to Erik, one of my betas from A Hope Too Far (did I mention that it's coming soon to Schnoogle.com?), who continues to help with this piece despite his personal dislike of the pairing. Finally, thanks must be sent to Ally, Tasneem, Erin, Jess, Elizabeth, Vicky, Danny, David, Peter, John and Professor Lau, all of whom are my endlessly supportive graduate school cohorts.

Please be a responsible reader and review!!

This piece can also be found on the Yahoo! Group Dark Sarcasm.

You can email your review to me directly at [email protected].