A.N. - Sorry this took so long! I moved and then I moved back and life is crazy right now, but this happened all in one afternoon! Woohoo! A nice long chapter for you guys. Hope you enjoy it! (I've been suffering from some serious writer's block, recently)

Chapter 10 - Peripheral Vision

Hermione sat on the bench, looking over her notes for her potion. It had been exactly one day since her outing with Severus, and she knew that he was already suspecting something, which was not good. Though no longer a spy by profession, suspicion was still engrained into his nature and she knew that he could tell that something was off. It was her own fault really. Her mind was swimming with formulas and arithmantic equations and potions ingredients, all of them swirling around in her head like a stew that would not properly mix, no matter how hard she tried.

She let out a frustrated sigh, pulling a pen from her hastily pulled up hair and tapped the end of it on the notebook page that she was looking at.

The arithmantic equations just weren't working out…and she had the feeling that they were missing a critical element. So she decided to look back on her notes on the fairy wings, to see what else she was missing from her theory for the potion.

Fairy wings held several different properties, most of which were related to the passage between different realms in the magical kingdom. But, they also had several side effects that she wasn't able to figure out how to diffuse and needed to in order to make the potion work. Headaches, temporal-mental displacement, and auditory hallucinations were the three side effects that she was unable to get rid of. The potion had to be balanced to negate those effects, without affecting the transportational ones.

Deep in thought, she chewed on the end of her pen where the pen cap resided, a nervous habit that she'd developed in primary school and had never quite broken.

Well, I could change the amount of hellebore and add more, lowering the bicorn horn…but then that would cause light sensitivity and nausea.

She groaned once more in frustration and threw her pen across the table.

"Am I interrupting?" said a soft German-accented voice from the doorway, and she turned in her chair to see Professor Gentry standing there, one hand resting gently on the edge of the doorframe, looking for all the world like an innocuous bystander. No one ever would have guessed that he was one of the most formidable wand opponents in the magical world.

"No," Hermione replied, shaking her head. "I'm just…frustrated with something. Please, come in."

He stepped into the lab, and as he approached she noticed that he had something in his hand, a small brown-paper-wrapped package.

"I've brought something for you," he said, handing her the package. "You said that you were looking for something to help you out. I stumbled across this as I was unpacking a few boxes that I hadn't yet gotten to over the semester. I completely forgot I had it in the first place; I hope it can help."

She took the package from his hand, quickly undoing the string that wrapped around it tightly, letting out a gasp when she saw what it was. She was only vaguely aware of the book, as it had been mentioned in one of Severus' book's footnotes, and through her own exhaustive research, she'd only been able to find out that it wasn't in print any more. She ran her fingers lovingly over the cover, amazed by the detail that was embossed into the cover; the runes and other symbols were pressed into the leather and perfectly flush with the cover of the book.

Instead of being embossed in gold, however, they were embossed in quicksilver, which was extremely rare. Of course, in the Muggle world it was known as mercury, but with the aid of magic it could be morphed into breathtaking pieces of jewelry or pressed into leather, and imbued with charms and spells that hid it from normal, non-magical eyes.

"It's…beautiful, Gabriel. How…how did you get your hands on this? I thought that it hasn't been in print for-"

"Nearly one hundred years."

She nodded, and then gently flipped it open and began to run her fingers lovingly over the print. This book could also, coincidentally, be the perfect key to helping her perfect her potion. The titles of the subjects listed inside had her mind whirling with possibilities.

"Thank you so much, Gabriel," she said, putting it down on the table and reaching up and wrapping her arms around his neck.

He chuckled in her ear and as she pulled back he gave her a broad smile.

He truly was a charming man, and she felt a faint flush grace her cheeks as he smiled at her so openly, so she quickly dropped her arm and turned her head, putting her attention on the desk, pretending to be busy with her hands so she avoid eye contact. She felt like a twelve year-old, using such juvenile methods.

Gently, he added, "Again, Miss Granger, I hope that it helps."

Feeling more secure, she lifted her eyes and said, "I'm sure it will, Gabriel. And, please, call me Hermione. We've known each other for nearly three months now."

"Of course…Hermione."

And with that, he left the room, leaving the Gryffindor girl feeling flushed at hearing his lovely accent wrap around the syllables of her first name. It was ridiculous that she was reacting this way. She knew, without a doubt, that she was completely besotted with Severus, of that there was no doubt in her mind, which was why she couldn't quite understand why Gabriel's kind regard towards her was causing her to react like a flustered second year.

Putting it to the side for the moment, she began to carefully read through the index, intent on finding just what she needed to solve her problems. It would be hard, but with the help of the Gabriel's book, it had just gotten significantly easier. Taking a deep breath, she reached for her pen on the other side of the table and pulled her notebook back towards her.

It was going to be a long day.

Hermione chewed on the tip of her pen her feet propped up on the lab table, scratching out yet another idea. This was, by far, the hardest thing that she'd ever tried to accomplish. Of course, if she enlisted Severus help, it would most likely go much more quickly, but she knew that she couldn't. She inwardly groaned and started a new sheet of paper.

Her lists had gotten longer and longer over the course of several hours. There were certain ingredients that she had to keep, but because of their numerous side-effects, she was trying to find the right balance of extra ingredients to counteract them. The problem with that, however, was the fact that because the base ingredients were so contradictory, all of the ingredients she wanted to add were also causing more, and in some cases, worse side effects than the original ones!

It was downright exhausting, but she persevered and made notes as she went, trying to figure out where she could make her changes.

This was something that a Potions Master was good at, and she was merely an apprentice, causing her to doubt her abilities as she attempted to make her very own potion…and one thing kept on popping out in her mind. The fairy wings. If she could fix those side effects without negating any of the other base ingredients, then it could work…but nothing was working.

Her groan finally came up and she let out a low, pathetic sound.

"Problems?"

Hermione nearly fell out of her chair as she attempted to turn in it with her legs still on the table. Realizing that her dignity was not going to be found, she managed to drop her feet, stand up, and then turned to face Severus, who was standing in the doorway looking all-too-amused at her predicament.

"Severus," she replied, slightly breathless. "How long have you been there?"

He raised an eyebrow.

"Does it matter?"

She shook her head, shoving her notes to the side, flipping a few sheets of parchment over top of it so that he wouldn't see what she was working on. She had promised the Goblin King that she would not involve either of the two men. Yes, Gabriel had given her the book, but she was using it for the potion without his knowledge, so she was safe.

His sharp eyes immediately followed the motion of her hand and Hermione bit her lip, realizing that trying to cover it up had, of course, drawn his attention. She should have known better by now that the one thing that always drew his attention was people trying to draw attention away from something. Hermione took a deep breath, steadying herself, and then said, in a surprisingly unaffected voice, "A personal project. Nothing important."

Of course, that just drew him further into the room, and she tried to hide her nerves by turning back to her notes.

She could feel him right behind her, and suddenly his arm had come around her and just as his fingertips caught on the edge of one of the pages, she pressed her hand firmly against it, keeping him from slipping it away from her. He pressed up further against her, his breath brushing against her cheekbone as he spoke. What was it with the men in her life having no idea about personal space?

"If it's nothing important," he drawled, "Then you won't mind if I…take a look."

As he pressed the littlest bit closer to her, she realized what he was doing. He was using her personal space against her! He was trying to make her uncomfortable to throw her off guard! The sheer nerve of him to try and pull something like that on her made her inner hackles rise up and her inner Gryffindor growl. Oh no, he was not going to get away with it.

She quickly pulled the paper out from under his questing fingers and then turned so that they were nose to nose…well, rather nose to chin. He was significantly taller than her, but she didn't let it faze her and stood her ground as she spoke.

"Severus, I know you mean well and, normally, I would consult you on any personal project that I might take on in my spare time, but this is…well…of a more…sensitive nature…"

She let her voice trail, and gave him a look that she knew he would interpret as embarrassed, and hoped that he picked up on the implication. She wasn't lying to him, per say, just letting him interpret her words in a way that would keep him from wanting to pry any further. He seemed to understand what she was implying and backed up, but only half an inch, at the most, and continued to tower over her, looking down at her in a slightly skeptical manner, his signature eyebrow lifted.

"I see," was all that he said, but as he did, she was suddenly aware of the fact that his right arm was pressed up against her left side, his hand still firmly rooted to the table behind her. If he put his other hand down, she would be caged.

Suddenly, she felt the air rush out of her lungs in a quiet exhale. She swallowed and closed her eyes, trying to ignore the reaction that her body was having to his proximity.

It didn't help that he had just come from his personal quarters and hadn't yet put on his usual tightly-buttoned frock. At that moment, all he wore was his white shirt, which wasn't buttoned all the way, exposing his throat, and had one of his black vests thrown over top of it, completely unbuttoned.

Hermione could feel an all-too-familiar warmth pooling low in her stomach, and she swallowed a second time, trying to quell the butterflies that were already forming behind her ribs. It was every stupid romance novel cliché, and she hated the fact that her body was betraying her so easily, and so she slowly opened her eyes and looked up at him…and was frozen. Why on earth was he looking at her like that? Why was he staring at her that way?

Her fingers tightened on the paper still in her hands and, before she could lose her nerve, she slipped out from between him and the table and walked over to the ingredients cupboard.

"I…I need to get a few things," she managed to stutter out. "Will you…will you be working on anything over the next couple of days that will need my help, Severus?"

Hermione silently praised herself for not stuttering on his name. After the moment that they'd just had, or almost had, she hadn't been sure that she would be able to. He pivoted on his heel, facing her straight on, and asked, "Nothing in particular. Why do you ask?"

She let out a sigh of relief.

"Oh, okay. Good. I was just hoping to use these next few days to catch up on my own personal projects. I mean," she hastily amended, "If that's alright with you."

He nodded.

"Of course. Take the time that you need."

Hermione smiled, and she felt some of their own camaraderie return as he returned her smile in kind.

Absently folding the notes in her hand, she motioned to the supply cupboard and asked, "Is it alright if I stock up on a few of your overstocked items? It's sort of a, well, a trial and error sort of project. I'm not entirely sure how much I'll need."

He nodded and then gave her a smirk as he replied, "Trial and error? It won't be like last time's trial and error project of yours, now would it?"

At that horrible reminder of her previously failed project from the beginning of her internship slash apprenticeship, she rolled her eyes and let out an exasperated sigh. Of course he would bring that up. He could never resist an opportunity to remind her of gloriously miscarried potion experiment.

"Do you have to bring that up, Severus? How many times have I told you that it wasn't-"

Still smirking, but now with an odd glimmer in his eyes, he interrupted with, "Your fault? Oh, I don't know…tell me once more and I might believe you."

She threw her hands up in the air, exasperated and exclaimed, "But it wasn't my fault! I swear! I put in the exactly nine drops of manticore venom that it said to put in, and I let it simmer for exactly twelve minutes, and then it just…look, it wasn't my fault!"

He smirked, crossing his arms over his chest as he approached her and leaned in, taking her off guard once more as he whispered into her ear, "I know," and when he pulled back she could see the gleam in his eyes for what it really was. Laughter. He was laughing at her! Why, he was such a…a…a Slytherin!

"You…!"

He then started to laugh, a deep rolling laugh that she'd never heard before, and she couldn't quite believe what she was seeing.

"Oh, do you have any idea how hard it has been these last few months to not tell you that it wasn't your fault?" Hermione didn't know what to say, so she just stood there, frozen, her mouth gaping in astonishment. "You may be absolutely brilliant, Hermione, but I do think that you take yourself a bit too seriously, I thought that you might have realized by now."

"But, what did you…?"

Her question trailed off as she saw him miming opening a vial and dropping some into a cauldron.

After a moment, she let out a small bark of laughter at realizing what he'd done. He'd added in a tenth drop of the manticore venom. Of course. She inwardly rolled her eyes, realizing that what he'd done was quite similar to first year hazing in Muggle primary school. For all of his protestations, he really did have a sense of humor.

She relaxed against the table behind her and gave him a fond smile.

"No explosions this time. I promise."

He nodded.

"Good. Now, will you need to continue using this table?" he asked, motioning to the one that still had all of her papers strewn across it, along with more than a few quills, pens, and partially filled vials.

She sheepishly nodded and said, "I'll clean this up. I know it's not exactly up to your usual standards," but he cut her off with a wave of his hand and said, "It's your workspace, you can do with it what you will, Hermione. I'll be over there if you need me."

He walked over to the work station closest to his desk and she smiled, watching him take off his vest, draping it over the back of his desk chair, and then smiled as he rolled up his sleeves and began to set up his tools around him. Hermione loved to watch him work and would have loved to just keep staring at him, but knew that she had to get back to what she was doing, or else she wouldn't get done in time.

She silently turned back to her table and began to shuffle her papers into some semblance of order.

She sat back down and pulled out a pen and sighed.

Back to the beginning.

The Goblin King paced in his throne room, feeling the pressure mounting. There was only so much time left, and he was expecting the Granger girl to keep up her end of the bargain. The unexpected arrival of his brother during his private session with the witch had him more upset than he was willing to admit.

Brynnach was a meddler. It was his nature to stick his nose where it wasn't wanted, and he could very easily mess everything up.

Jareth let out a low sigh and moved to sit back in his chair, tapping his riding crop on his knee, wondering whether or not he should check up on the witch or his Sarah.

In the end, he let the witch be.

In a practiced movement, he rolled a crystal over his wrist and into the palm of his hand, willing her image to come to him…and there she was. There was his Sarah, sitting on the edge of her bed, her books splayed out around her in artful disarray. She had grown so much over the years and had, to his eyes, become the queen that he knew she could be.

As he watched her he contemplated how she had changed. She was no longer cocky or moody, and had become a woman of confidence who had a healthy perception of her own weaknesses…everything that a queen needed to have. But not only that, but she had changed from an ungainly coltish creature to a magnificent, unconsciously graceful being. Not a swan, because she was not that naïve; no, she reminded him of a vixen; a fox who could slip through her surroundings without being noticed, but when she was noticed, you couldn't help but stare.

Even now, as her head was bent over her classwork, she carried an air of elegance about her. It was in how her hair fell against her shoulder, how her wrist rested on the edge of her notebook…how her lips parted and silently moved as she read over unfamiliar terms.

Jareth knew. She was meant to be a queen. Not a lowly commoner. No boy or man from Aboveground could ever come close to her shining glory.

"Oh, Sarah," he whispered as he stared. "A queen you shall be, I promise you this."

It didn't matter whether or not the Granger girl finished the spell. Yes, it would be helpful, but he had planned on taking her anyway, even if she did finish it. He needed her as leverage in order to bring the Labyrinth's rightful queen back to him. The witch was bait, and she would be the flawless lure to bring everyone he needed to him.

He could tell that Severus was taken with her, as well as Gabriel, and he could use that to his advantage when the time came.

She would be the perfect leverage to get back his queen and to make sure that the two wizards gave him back what he was owed, and rightfully so.

As long as his brother didn't get in the way.

Jareth smirked, pointed teeth glinting in the low light of the throne room as he stared into the crystal sphere, putting every bit of Sarah into his memory, branding it onto his mind so that he would never forget who she belonged to…and who he belonged to.

"Soon, Sarah. Soon."

Part 10/?