Unavoidable Attraction

Too much scrubbing

Hermione was down on the cold stone floor scrubbing with a muggle brush. Snape had taken her wand to guarantee that she wouldn't use it to make her time go by faster.

She looked up at home with her caramel eyes. He was sitting at his desk grading papers with red ink. He was scratching away with his quill no doubt writing how stupid that student must be.

"Miss granger. Staring is quite rude. I thought your mother would have taught you that."

Hermione continued to scrub. The floor was disgusting. It felt like it hadn't been cleaned in years. Some dirt was impossible to scrub away and her arms were going numb from pressing so hard.

The clock struck 2 a.m. and hermione
was ready to pass out from exhaustion. "Please sir. Can I go? I have early classes in the morning" hermione pleaded.

She only heard a scoff come from Snape's direction as he continued to scratch at the piles of parchment on his desk.

Hermione continued to scrub but soon stood up to stretch out her legs that had been curled under her for the past hour and a half. When she stood, she immediately regretted it. The room started to spin and her legs felt incredibly weak. She stumbled a little and tried to grab the desk by her but failed. She hit the cold floor with a hard thud and everything went black.

"Come on hermione. I don't want to have to take you to Madame Pomfrey at this time of night."

Hermione's eyes slowly flickered open and she saw a dark figure kneeling in front on her. She was sitting up against the side of one of the desks and Snape was pressing a cold wet rag to her forehead.

"Did you just call me Hermione?"

She noticed a quick flare of panic run across his face. He turned his head to the side, letting his long greasy hair hide it from her view for a few moments.

"I've never heard you call any student by their first name to their face before" Hermione said as she pushed herself up a little further with her hands. "The way you say it, actually makes it kind of sound beautiful."

"I think that you might have hit your head a lot harder than I originally thought miss granger. It's probably best if you head back to your common room and go to sleep." he stood up extending his hand out to assist her up. She paused and stared at it for a moment but finally took it. It was a lot softer than she would have expected. It looked as if it were covered in calluses but it was fairly smooth. It was very strong as it pulled her to her feet.

She swayed a little when she stood but she quickly was able to walk to the door. Before she closed it behind her, she took one last look at Snape and in that moment, he put down his walls and smiled as she left.