A/N: This story was written for anayam410 for the 220th review on 'The Art of Brewing'. The prompt was 'fluff with exam frustration'. I hope you like this, and so does everyone else. Enjoy, and as always let me know what you think! :) xxx

"Urgh, I'm never going to get this done!", Hermione growled and jumped up from her desk in Severus' office.

One day it had just appeared across from his and he had insisted that it was only because she was taking over all of his space with her research. He also couldn't bear her organised chaos on his desk.

"It's my workspace, Hermione, and I like it nice and tidy, thank you very much. Be grateful I don't just kick you out." Of course the last one was an empty threat and they both knew it. She might be his apprentice now, but they had been friends before that, relying quite heavily on each other in the aftermath of the war.

Now Hermione was pacing angrily up and down the small office space, wand clutched in her hand, her hair flowing wildly behind her. She was deep in thought, trying desperately to overcome the thought-blockage that had hit her (mostly) out of nowhere.

At the end of each year of her apprenticeship there was a project to be handed in on a potion she had created or an existing potion whose recipe she had improved as part of her training. The end of this year and the deadline for her project were less than a day away and due to unforeseen circumstances in the creation of her potion and a rather bad accident in the lab a couple of days prior she was now behind on her write-up.

Some of the theory was also proving rather tricky and she was pretty sure there was a mistake somewhere in her calculations, but she couldn't find it for the life of her and Severus himself was being absolutely no help.

Muttering to herself and cursing her master for being such a git, she paced up and down and up and down, occasionally coming to a hold in front of her desk to rifle through the papers strewn haphazardly across it or to do a quick calculation on a scrap of parchment.

Raking a hand through her hair, all she wanted to do was scream in frustration. It wasn't like anyone would hear her down here, the walls in the dungeons were thick as it was and she knew for a fact Severus had soundproofed his rooms, but she didn't want to make an even bigger fool of herself.

The potions master had left a couple of minutes ago, when she started whining about how she was going to fail her apprenticeship, informing her tartly that he would not return until she came to her senses and found a way to explain the theory behind her potion.

It wasn't as if theory had ever been a problem for her before, that was usually the easy part. Still there was something odd going on with the potion she was creating, because things were happening to it in their experiments that she had not been able to predict in her theory, and how was she going to be able to explain that?

She could already see the headlines in the Prophet: "Gryffindor know-it-all fails to explain how she made her potion work and fails apprenticeship". Wait no, that was a terrible headline…

"Uuuurrrrgghhh!", she screamed at the walls and was about to do something undoubtedly stupid when the hairs on the back of her neck prickled and she felt a spell flying towards her. Pivoting around on her foot she blocked with an elegant flick of her wrist and stared at Severus who was standing in the doorway, a dark expression on his face.

"What did you do that for?", she exclaimed, frowning at him, but he did not reply. Instead he continued throwing spells at her, forcing her to step back until she passed through a door into the trainings room located behind the office. She didn't notice that for a while however, busy as she was deflecting his spells.

"Severus, what the hell is wrong with you?", she wanted to know and he raised an eyebrow at her.

"I don't believe it…", she muttered, quickly dodged a spell he send her way and then fired back at him. He smiled. Moments later they were engaged in a full on duel. Powerful hexes bounded off the walls, jinxes only barely missed their mark. Hermione, fuelled by her frustration was quicker than ever and Severus had to admire her reflexes. He really had taught her well.

Time passed without them noticing, both of them settling easily into a routine that had established itself early on in their friendship. Hermione's fighting was absolutely on point today, but she had hardly slept in the last few days. This became quite obvious when a moment later a spell hit her from the side and her wand flew out of her hand.

Having learned a long time ago that if she wanted to beat Severus she needed to be in best form and 100% concentrated, she paid hardly any mind to the harmless spell. Instead, the curly haired witch closed her eyes for a moment, feeling the adrenaline still pumping through her veins and enjoying that for the first time in days her head was free of any thoughts regarding her potion.

Hearing the familiar shuffle of robes, she opened her eyes a moment later to look straight at Severus who was standing closer to her than normally.

"Do you feel better now?", he asked after a moment, holding her wand out to her. She took it, her hand brushing his slender fingers as she did so. A jolt of electricity shot up her arm and she tried not to blush.

"Yes. Thank you.", she answered, lifting her head to look up into his dark eyes. The corner of his lips quirked up and he leaned down unexpectedly to press a kiss to her forehead.

"Good. I already thought I had lost my workspace to your ranting forever."

She stared blankly at him, trying to come to terms with the fact that he had just kissed her and not quite listening to what he was saying. He seemed to know what was going on in her head, because his lip quirked up some more and this time he looked decidedly smug. But he didn't say anything and instead motioned towards the door. "Now, if you want to come to the lab, I think I might be able to give you a bit of a hint as to where you were going wrong."

oxoxoxoxo

Half an hour later Hermione was banging her head on a table repeatedly, all calm from their earlier duel gone.

"I'm gonna fail.", she muttered. Bang. "I'm never gonna get my write-up done." Bang. "How am I going to pass the apprentice end-of-year-exams in a couple of weeks" - bang - "if I can't even get this project right?" Before she could hit her head again, a pair of familiar hands grasped her shoulders, pulling her back and turning her around on her stool.

"That's enough.", Severus growled, staring angrily at her. "Why are you hurting yourself? Every apprentice makes a mistake every now and again or oversees something crucial in an experiment. That's why you're here. How can you learn when you never make any mistakes?"

She glared at him. "I don't make mistakes. Not like that anyway.", she spat, getting up and moving away from him. "I should have considered that the growing conditions might have affected the attributes of the garlint weed. It's not like it doesn't happen with other plants as well. I should have known. Just like I should have known that adding the dragon blood simultaneously to the lemon juice would cause a reaction that would blow my entire cauldron up. And I still did it anyway. You said it was fine then too and look where that has gotten me! I don't even know anymore why you took me on as your apprentice in the first place."

At her last words, there was a sudden whirl of black and then she was backed against the workbench, Severus towering over her. "What in Merlin's beard has gotten into you?", the potions master hissed, his voice dangerously low. "Has someone stolen your self-confidence? You are a brilliant witch and any other day you are fully aware of that. You are also fully aware of your merits as a potioneer or else you would have never approached me to take you on as my apprentice."

She closed her eyes and sighed, knowing that he was right. It just felt like she was drowning in her work, not getting anywhere and then there was Severus and that perpetual tension between them for the last month or so, ever since they had decided to get drunk together in a muggle pub instead of going to the annual ball to celebrate the end of the war.

Some things had been said that night that neither of them was willing to talk about and so they had been acting as if nothing had happened. Well. Asides from the odd hug that lasted longer than it should or a kiss dropped onto her forehead like earlier. Still, the uncertainty of what was going on was driving her crazy and it was affecting her work which only drove her even more to distraction.

"But all this is not really about your project at all, is it?", Severus smooth voice suddenly yanked her from her thoughts.

"What? Why would you say that?"

It was his turn to sigh and he took a step back from her, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"Hermione, I know you quite well and I know that you only ever get this insecure and this emotional about your work when there is something bothering you that has nothing to do with it. When you were a student it happened every single time you had a row with Potter and Weasley. You would get even more obsessive about your schoolwork than you already were. Now… I'm also fairly certain I know what it is that has you so off balance."

"Well, do enlighten me then.", she snapped, crossing her arms in front of her. She didn't like how he was sounding all 'I know everything'. It occurred to her that this must have been what she sounded like when he called her a 'know-it-all'.

He raised an eyebrow at her and there was a glint of something in his eyes that she couldn't quite place.

"When we got drunk last month. We talked about a couple of things that you have been ignoring ever since."

"I have been ignoring it?", she shouted, livid, taking a step towards him and pointing her finger at his chest. "I have been ignoring it? We both pretended it never happened!"

"Well I wasn't going to ask you out while you are in the middle of your end of year assessments!"

"You…what?"

He sighed. "When you were drunk you said that you wished there could be more between us than just friendship. And I said maybe there could be. I was thinking about how to ask you out for days after and then you started stressing over your exams, so I decided to wait until afterwards. I know how you feel about distractions."

A smile unexpectedly lit her face and she took another step closer to him. "You're right. I don't like distractions when I have a test to pass or an essay to write. And have you any idea how distracting it is, thinking that you just said there might be more to get me to shut up?"

"I'm-", but before he could apologise, she had raised herself onto her toes and was pressing her lips to his.

oxoxoxoxo

The next morning, just as they were returning to the dungeons after breakfast, Severus stopped her in an empty hallway. "Would you have dinner with me tonight?", he asked.

She smiled and lifted herself up to give him a quick kiss. "Yes." She took his hand, a mischievous glimmer in her eyes. "But only if you come with me to the Ministry when I hand up my project and I get a rematch for yesterdays duel."

He sighed dramatically. "I really wonder why I put up with you sometimes, witch."

She laughed. "Because I'm brilliant."

"See, this is why I don't compliment people!", he growled, stalking past her towards the lab. "They never let you hear the end of it."

"Oh, am I people now?", she wondered innocently.

Before she knew what was going on, she was yanked into the lab and pushed up against the door.

"Hermione.", Severus said exasperatedly. Then he bent his head and pressed his lips to hers. She certainly was not people.