Bad Habits

Severus returned from his evening patrol and hung his cloak up beside the door. He was about to crawl into bed when he noticed light coming from beneath the door to his library. He opened it knowing exactly who would be on the other side, again. Sure enough, Hermione sat at his desk, a pile of books beside her and a length of parchment flowing off the desk and onto the floor.

Severus walked over to her. "When I said you could use my library I should have included restricted times."

Hermione stopped writing and looked up at him with tired eyes. "You don't really mean that."

Severus lifted an eyebrow. "If people find out you're here at all times of the night, they'll begin to get ideas."

Hermione blushed. "They know I'm studying."

"At 2 a.m.?"

"Of course. It's what I'm doing, isn't it?"

Severus chuckled. "Actually, you're right. No one would bother to imagine the bookworm is doing anything but studying all night long," Severus replied in all seriousness.

He looked around again at the mess, wondering how exactly the girl had the stamina to study so much. Then his eyes alit upon a pile of discarded wrappers and bottles on the floor.

Hermione followed his gaze. "I'll clean it up, don't worry."

"Hermione, you've had… six chocolate frogs, two bottles of pumpkin juice, three cauldron cakes, and a fizz whizzer?" He asked incredulously.

Hermione seriously replied, "Mm… I didn't much like that fizz whizzer." She went back to her assignment.

"Hermione, this is ridiculous! Why don't you order something decent from the kitchens if you're hungry?"

"S.P.E.W." She replied, scribbling furiously on her parchment.

"That makes no sense. You eat three meals a day that the house elves prepare."

"That's different. They have to do it anyway for all the other students because Dumbledore refuses to change the dining policy. I'm not going to wake them up in the middle of the night because I've got a case of the munchies," she matter-of-factly explained.

And that's how it came to be that after every evening patrol, the bookworm would study and the besotted Potions Master would prepare a midnight snack for two.