"You have got to be kidding me," Hermione muttered, angrily studying the letter she'd just opened. After a few more seconds, she tossed it onto the dining table at Grimmauld Place.

"What?" Ron asked through his mouthful of food. Breakfast had just been served, and he shoveled it down quickly, barely leaving room to breathe. Despite the year living outside his family home since Voldemort's downfall, he still acted like the same school child she'd met almost eight years ago. Hermione grimaced slightly as she watched his cheeks bulge.

"My interview went well. The Board has finally decided to accept my application to teach at Hogwarts, starting this September."

Ron's mouth fell open comically, showing the room the half-masticated mess that was in his mouth. Hermione tried to keep the disgust from showing on her face.

"That's great, Mione! I knew they had to let you teach." It took him a second or two to process her reaction. "Why aren't you happier?"

"I don't have enough experience to teach by myself. I need to assist an already seasoned professor for a year before I can be certified to teach my own classes. Minerva thinks that I should share the position of Potions instead of Transfiguration. There is another new teacher that is more qualified than I am for Transfiguration."

Hermione slouched down in her chair, dejected. The opportunity to work at Hogwarts, especially teaching her favorite subject, had been exciting and thrilling. Now, it was slowly becoming a nuisance. First, it had taken the ministry an agonizingly long time to pass Hermione through the required tests for her education degree, despite Minerva's promises that she would have a job the moment graduated. Then, the deadline for lesson plans had been moved up by more than two weeks because the new board of directors was trying to keep Minerva on her toes. Something about her proving the quality of the "staff". All the teachers had rallied behind Minerva and been prepared on time for all the directors' audits. Even Severus Snape, though, begrudgingly. To top it all off, Hermione's accommodations had been changed numerous times during repairs to the school, as construction got delayed time and time again. In the end, she chose to stay at Grimmauld Place until the start of term.

This time, Hermione was being asked to work with the one person she had been avoiding the most. It wasn't the frustration of having to start from scratch on her lesson plans and resubmit them. It was dealing with the dark glances and the pressure of his glower every time she entered the room. For some reason, Snape seemed to resent her for saving him in the Shrieking Shack. He hadn't said as much, but he had never thanked her, and every chance he got, he slid an insult her way. The thought of having to see him every day and work side by side made her stomach flip uncomfortably.

"Too bad you'd have to share the position with Snape," Harry said, putting down his newspaper to sip his tea.

"I was really looking forward to getting to work with Minerva." She sat up a little straighter as she summoned her Gryffindor courage. "I could work with Professor Snape. I did get an O on the Potion NEWTs." Only because it was proctored by a neutral ministry official, and not the man himself.

"Don't forget he doesn't work well with others," Ron mumbled around his fork.

"That's right. It'd be less you working with him than you working for him," Harry added.

Hermione knew that was true. He had been particularly nasty since he'd come out of Saint Mungo's. Treating him there had been a nightmare, according to his healers. He had refused help with rehabilitation, and it had resulted in what seemed to be a small, lingering limp, not to mention the jagged scars on his neck. If he was that stubborn, there was no way he would allow her the kind of freedom Minerva would have allowed. On the other hand, Hermione had dealt with him for the past eight years. And she knew she could be just as hardheaded.

The boys watched her stare off into the distance for a minute.

"What're you going to do?" Harry asked. She sighed and watched Ron eat for a minute with mild distaste.

"I'll just have to take the job. Opportunity doesn't come without sacrifice. I'm sure I'll have worse coworkers in the future. Better to practice with someone I already know and understand than be stuck with some jerk who thinks he can walk all over me."

She stood decisively, folding up the letter and sliding it into her back pocket.

"Yeah, with our arch enemy." Ron could barely be understood around his mouthful of toast.

"You're confusing Harry and me. Snape and I tolerated each other for years. We can do it again."

"If you want to." Ron stood up and placed his dishes in the sink. "I gotta go pick up Luna from her dad's house. She went to get some more of his stuff before the Ministry ransacks the place again."

"Just don't bring anything else dangerous into this house. Kreacher is enough for now," Harry said, glancing over to the dark corner where the ever-present yellow eyes followed him.

"Go have fun with your girlfriend," Hermione said. "I have to respond to this letter."

After penning out a quick response, she sent it back with the owl it came with. Hopefully, Minerva would want to speak to her immediately to get things sorted. And hopefully, it wouldn't take very long for the note to get to her.

Breakfast was slow because she struggled to stomach anything. She couldn't focus on her reading, and there wasn't much else to fill her time. After a couple hours had passed, she decided to take a shower. There was no point showing up dirty to her new employer. As she tested the temperature of the water, she noticed a note appeared on the counter next to her clean clothes. Picking it up, she opened the folded sheet of parchment, frowning as she recognized the spiky handwriting.

Come see me immediately,

Professor Snape.

Knowing he meant immediately when he said it, she hesitated and looked down at herself. Already naked, shower running, hair tied up and wrapped… He could wait. She stepped into the shower fully.

The fire roared green as Hermione flooed into the potion master's private quarters.

She had never been in his private rooms before. She doubted if any student had ever seen them. Except maybe Malfoy. She stood in the dark room, eyes barely able to make out shapes after the fire died back down. She suddenly had the urge to turn and go back the way she came.

Before she could leave, she heard a slight sound from around the corner. She had stepped into a small living room. Even with minimal lighting, she could still make out the bookshelves lining the walls. The only part of the room not covered in books was the relatively small desk covered in what looked like essays.

"Snape?" she asked the empty room. "Professor Snape?" Another small sound from the hallway behind her made her turn. She walked across the room, past two doors on her left, through a small doorway, and entered a kitchen. Another, longer hallway extended from the kitchen, leading to a black metal door. There were cardboard boxes lining the wall of the hall, stacked four to a column. The line of boxes moved a few inches towards her. A large figure at the end of the line grunted in time with the movements.

"Professor Snape?" She made her way forward cautiously.

"Ah. Miss Granger." She could tell from his voice he wasn't happy. "I had hoped you would heed my instructions in a timely manner." He stood up fully, a black shape against the darkness of the door behind him.

"You interrupted a shower. I came as soon as I could. And I would appreciate it if you would call me Hermione. We are, after all, colleagues."

"Of course," he sneered. She couldn't see his face, but her memories of him filled in the blank. Snape took a few steps forward and bent down to open the box closest to him. "These are the new supplies for this year's students. It is the responsibility of each professor to be prepared before the students' arrival. You must label and shelve them before the beginning of the semester."

Hermione stared at him in shock. "You sent me a note proclaiming urgency because you wanted help organizing school supplies? Something we have almost two months to do? And don't think I didn't notice you failed to ask, merely order."

He took a few calculated steps as he spoke, his whole body language that of a stalking panther.

"I sent you a note proclaiming urgency because Minerva would like to speak to the two of us together. She sent me a note proclaiming urgency, and I thought it would be efficient for you to handle the more mundane tasks, while I focus on the important ones," he snarled, looking down at her over his nose.

"I'll ignore that insult for the moment. Shall we go to the headmaster's office?"

"She shall come to us when she finds the time. I am sure she's already aware of your arrival."

"All right, I'll wait." Hermione's hands immediately attached to her hips. "On that note, moment's over. Are you telling me you are too lazy for mundane tasks, so I must do them? This is a partnership, not a dictatorship."

He faced her fully, head coming down to her level. "You, Miss Granger, are not a professor until you complete one full year apprenticing under a licensed educator. You will be my assistant, for all intents and purposes."

"So, you interrupted my bath because you're lazy?"

"My apologies. I, of course, was not aware you were bathing. Had I been, I would have sent a howler instead." His eyes had narrowed into thin black slits. She noticed they seemed especially dark because of his eyelashes. They were thick and dark, much like his hair, which added another air of enshrouding darkness. Hermione had the strange mental image of him with pale, thin eyelashes and a shaved head. She struggled to keep the smile off her face and the laugh out of her throat.

"Had you sent something so childish, you're right. I would have rushed over." She took a last step forward, jabbing a finger into his chest. "And you would be hexed into a puddle of meat, spelled to the wall for the rest of your unnatural life."

Neither of them had noticed the sound of the floo in the other room. They did notice the gentle force that separated them to opposite sides of the hall.

"I see my star pupils are getting along just fine. This meeting may take longer than I had planned." Both heads turned to look at the woman striding towards them.

"Hello, Professor McGonagall. I'm glad to see you again," Hermione said, straightening the wrinkles in her shirt.

"Can we please skip the pleasantries and move on to the reason you're here, Headmaster?" Snape demanded. Hermione shifted nervously at his disrespectful tone.

"Of course. You must be wondering why I decided to pair the two of you up." There was an uncomfortable pause as she beamed back and forth between the two teachers.

"Not really," Snape said, carelessly.

"A little," Hermione answered.

Minerva gave Snape a hard stare for a moment before continuing. "Yes, well, I think your personalities are wonderfully similar and they way you two would work together would be beneficial to the students. Besides, both of you can be a tad hard-headed sometimes, and you'll need someone who won't get pushed around."

Minerva sighed. "To be frank, Hermione needs a disciplinarian to help her become stricter with the students, and Severus…" She fixed her stern gaze on his. "Not a single applicant would work with you. Most of them were ex-students."

Hermione tried to stifle her laughter and barely succeeded. "I already took the job. We will get along fine." She shot an appraising look at Snape. "What else do we need to talk about?"

"Living arrangements. Both of you will need to share these quarters and the storeroom and classroom. We have no more room in the castle while rebuilding after the battle. All the teachers are sharing living quarters with teaching apprentices; although, now that I think about it, you will be the only co-ed roommates, so to speak."

The two teachers shared a moment of panic. Even though Snapes's eyes barely widened, Hermione knew he was just as freaked out as she was.

"But there's only one bedroom and bathroom, Minerva. You cannot expect me to share—"

"I do, and you will. There will be two beds. You're both adults. I expect you to behave as such." She glanced at her watch importantly. "Oh, look at that. Almost time for tea. Excuse me."

Without further ado, Minerva turned and walked back to the door in the living room. "Oh, and congratulations on the job, Hermione. We're all very pleased to have you back in the school. Move your things in whenever you're ready."

With a bright smile at the young woman, and a hard look at Severus, she spun out the door, closing it behind her magically.

Almost before the door had slammed, Snape groaned, running his hand through his hair aggressively. "How did that holy terror think this was appropriate? Are you okay sleeping in the same room with a man fifteen years your senior? Am I okay sleeping with a woman who was my student this time last year? She didn't even bother to ask us."

Hermione grabbed his forearm to pull his hand out of his hair. "Hey! Hey, this isn't too terrible. Of course, it'll be hard to get used to, but it's all a matter of trust, right? And communication. I've known you half my life. I cared for you when you were in that coma after Nagini bit you. You stayed with me during that horrible Polyjuice-cat debacle. Then there was the time you saved us when Lupin had turned."

He scowled down at her. "Trust me? Trust me to not do what? Rape you in the middle of the night? Take advantage of you in the shower?" He laughed darkly. "There's no chance of that. There's a greater chance we'll kill each other in our sleep."

He brushed past her, dismissing her shocked and offended look. "What makes you think you even have a chance to kill me in my sleep? Or get close enough for anything else?"

He turned to swoop in and whisper into her ear. "I prefer my women willing and able. You don't seem like either."

Their eyes met, both flaming in anger. There was a moment as Hermione struggled to think of an appropriate retort through the haze of red over her eyes, then the red took over and she was reliving a memory she hadn't thought of in over a year.

Sweaty bodies came together again and again, Hermione's back rubbing almost painfully against the terrible red and brown fabric in that awfully busy pattern. She ignored it as she focused on the pleasure of her partner. Her hands roved down a sinewy back, into black trousers, then around his hips to the front of his pants.

"God, I missed you, kitten," he said, groaning into her hair as she found her mark. "Today was awful. I had to keep myself from grabbing you during class. Those poor first years wouldn't have known what to do if I had acted on any of my thoughts."

She giggled as his stubble from the day rubbed along her neck behind his kisses. She felt a slight tickle travel up her side as he slid her shirt up, teasing her by rubbing along the seam of her bra. Just as he reached up into—

Hermione snapped back into the present, gasping in a breath. Snape held her by the shoulders, gazing sharply into her eyes. She shrugged him off and fought off the blush she could feel rising to her cheeks.

"What was that, Miss Granger?" he hissed, eyes narrowing.

"I'm fine. Just a memory I had forgotten about."

Snape glanced from her flushed face, to the quick rise and fall of her chest, to the quick way she stepped away from him, to the movement of her eyes as she avoided his. He took an intimidating step towards her. She took a small step away from him and found the pile of boxes to her back.

"Something private, Miss Granger?" He advanced on her again. Whatever was bothering her so much had to be about him.

"Yes, private," she snapped. Her eyes locked with his so quickly, he was almost shocked. "And it's Hermione."

She crossed her arms across her chest, well aware she was trying to put up a physical blockade between them. Although it was a real struggle, she met his gaze with confidence, deliberately remembering anything other than the unwelcome memory of the couch she stood less than 20 meters from.

"Does it have to do with me?"

"How could it? Just an old memory." There was a silence as the two faced off. It was clear Snape didn't believe her but had no evidence to disprove her.

"Normally, I could not care less about secrets that don't involve me. However, you have the uncanny ability to share too much personal information at the slightest provocation." He leaned forward, black eyes staring into Hermione's. Judging by her dilated pupils, flush, and shallow breathing, it was something interesting. "It leads me to ask if it will affect our working relationship at all."

"Definitely not. I wouldn't let anything affect our working relationship. This opportunity is too important to me." He noticed she specified 'working' relationship.

"Okay," he answered tightly. They stood staring at each other, faces about a foot apart now. She didn't know how. Hadn't she taken a step back? He looked over her, clearly waiting for her to say something more. She pursued her lips together stubbornly.

Snape cleared his throat and stepped away, side-stepping a box. "Yes, well, I suppose you ought to go back home and get any necessities." She tried not to smile. She had won a staring contest with Snape. "There is much to be done, and I require your…assistance."

This time she did smile. "Thank you for sort of asking me for help. It's progress."

Hermione stepped forward, brushing her hands down her robes, even though they weren't dirty.

"Do you—" Snape cleared his throat. "Do you need any help?"

Hermione almost jumped out of her skin. "Help?" she asked.

"Yes. Carrying anything over?"

Realization dawned. She smiled. Severus Snape trying to be helpful and social.

"No. I don't think so. I'll just pack for the next day or two, I think. It should only take me a few minutes to pack and talk to the boys. Maybe half an hour." Snape walked her to the fireplace. "If I do need help, I won't hesitate to ask."

"Well, then, I will start on the ingredients," he said, watching her step into the fireplace.

"Goodbye, Severus."

"Goodbye, Hermione."