Author's Note: Well I had this chapter written for ages and thought I might as well upload it. I am amazed at the fanfic writers on here that can balance their professional writing with their "fun" writing! I hope one day to achieve this balance and not leave this story (my baby at this point) hanging. Rest assured I still have the final chapter written and a timeline going. I also think this story won't quite reach epic!fic length, so hopefully one day this will be a fun binge for whoever stumbles across it. I also have been distracted by very randomly becoming obsessed with Tomione fanfic after 15 years an SS/HG shipper. My love still resides with those two... particularly since there are definitely few good Tomiones. But I might end up trying one myself to satisfy my pickiness...

In the meantime, please, please review. I love seeing reviews. Reviews are what make me want to write. Favoriting this story is also so flattering, and I'm so happy people have followed and continued to favorite it. But there's nothing like real feedback to keep the coals stoked in my cold little soul!

At this point, Granger knew I'd be gone by the end of the year. She didn't know the specifics, but she had figured enough from my little hints. Selfish hints, really; a part of me couldn't bear to lose her along with Dumbledore. I needed her to know that there was a plan, even if I couldn't admit to it.

But I was preparing her. Preparing her in ways Dumbledore knew not; where he limited me with Potter, I instead doubled my discussion with Granger. Draco, in the meantime, was a blazing negative in this area.

In all of this, I knew Potter had to die. I imagine the world at large knows of the larger prophecy at this point? Yes?

But first, it would be Dumbledore to die - and that was his plan. Knowing they both would be dead by the end of the war never ceased to make my jaw clench. They were the biggest fixtures in the tableau of "Snape is Losing Control." Draco was becoming the icing on the tart in all of this; someone who could easily be saved when so many were lost, and yet he continually avoided me.

The thought never ceased to make me angry.

But Granger - I wanted to make sure she lived. And, I perhaps illogically told myself, she listened to me. Within reason.

I helped her brew potions. I taught her how to forage for Dittany and other herbs. I let her read whatever she wanted out of my private library, hoping beyond hope that her steel trap of a mind would save her life where I could not.

It was February when she turned to me during one of these times. She had been sneaking to me after hours, or exhausting my sanctioned office hours for "help for Harry." Her time spent with me only increased following the incident with Weasley.

"Severus?"

I grunted, still marking a 4th year Ravenclaw's paper.

"Do you think we should brew some Polyjuice?"

I slowly put my quill down, looking at her with a single eyebrow raised.

"Polyjuice, Miss Granger? Surely Slughorn's stores would be easier to break into than mine were?"

She was staring determinedly at the stone ceiling.

"I was trying to protect the school," she murmured, her cheeks still as pink as they were when I'd fucked her not an hour earlier over my desk.

I laughed. I saw her eyes dart to me, her face still upturned.

"I thought it was Potter for ages. I thought your rather foolish transformation was a result of his botched potion."

Her feet fidgeted, one rising to brush the back of an ankle.

"Of course, Potter wasn't capable of brewing such an advanced potion at that age. Nor is he now, yet I keep hearing incessant bragging from your other professors on the matter."

She looked at me then, exasperated. "I love Harry, but I agree wholeheartedly."

Nothing is so delicious to me as Potter being insulted from an unexpected source. Even Dumbledore once referred to him as "scraggly," and it was enough to get me through a rather trying summons from the Dark Lord.

"Is that so?"

She looked a bit put out at having insulted her friend in front of arguably his least favorite person in the world.

"He is much smarter than you give him credit for. He's just been che-" She stopped, pursing her lips and holding her breath as if she was about to vomit.

I sat up. "Cheating?"

She averted her eyes. She was certainly a worse liar than Potter ever was.

"No, no, not cheating. Just… getting unusual tutoring," she said a little bitterly. At my expression, she quickly added, "Not from me."

"Hmm."

She walked up to the desk. "This doesn't affect my original question. Polyjuice?"

"It's a tedious process, as I'm sure you know. What are your reasons?"

She seemed ready for this question. "I've been thinking about potions in general since… Ron..."

She paused on the name. I tried not to notice.

"...got poisoned by potioned chocolates. Harry is constantly a target. And as dangerous as potions are to his person, they could be so vital to his defense. I can think of no better way to protect him in a pinch than to make him not look like Harry."

"Certainly a stinging jinx to his face could achieve the same effect?"

She rolled her eyes. "Someone else looking like him could also be a wise diversion at some point."

I considered the thought. She was right, of course. Remarkable that Dumbledore hadn't ever thought to use the potion in any form with the boy for his own protection. Jeeringly, I suspected that if Sirius Black had been kept Polyjuiced during his brief life outside of Azkaban, we'd have avoided much of the stir craziness that got us into the mess at the Department of Mysteries in the first place. But then, without the summer following that incident, would I have ever even looked twice at Granger? Would she have looked at me?

How much potion would she need, I wondered, after I'm no longer accessible to her? I had my own personal lab regardless of my office being located near the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom. Spinner's End had a lab, as well. Should I key her to the wards?

In the meantime, Granger had been chattering away while I plotted a possible future post-Dumbledore where I could still help her. Fuck her, yes, but also help her.

I was brought back to attention after one particular phrase.

"What did you say?"

She sighed. "I said, 'If only we could alter the duration of the Polyjuice effect like Wolfsbane.'"

Had I not just facetiously thought of polyjuicing Sirius Black for two years? I had imagined simply dosing him over and over again. But what if?

My mind whirred. "Granger, are you aware that I am who patented the Wolfsbane alteration that allows it to last through the whole full moon cycle, rather than a single night?"

She rolled her eyes. Impertinent. Luscious.

"Of course I know that. Why?"

I stared at her, my mind too busy piecing things together to answer. Her eyes widened however, as she realized…

"We could do it for Polyjuice. Something could extend the duration. You're looking at me because you think it can be done?"

I toyed with my usual fatalistic edge. "It's virtually impossible. Polyjuice is also highly controlled for this reason; impersonating someone with steady doses every few hour is already easy enough."

She smiled a little at my inflection on "easy," before adding, "Keeping Mad Eye in a trunk for a year certainly wasn't difficult for Crouch."

"Imagine how dangerous it would be if they could go days without needing to redose. Or weeks?" She mused, toying with a curl.

"Indeed."

We both stared at each other a moment before moving to my bookshelves simultaneously. The next few hours were spent reading through every relevant book possible in my collection. At one point she muttered out loud, "Will have to go the Restricted Section…" and I focused my eyes on her. Her hand stayed holding a page open in one book while the other hand quickly cross-referenced in another. Her eyes seemed manic.

I ached for her. I ached for this to be a normal occurrence for us; sharing an idea, working towards its execution. No time spent trying to explain basics - she already knew it all. It was these moments when I felt real fear; real fear that Granger had worked her way from "release" to "fondness" in my mind and wasn't budging from this new position. I wanted all my students - yes, even fucking Potter - to live, to thrive. But the efforts I was going through to ensure she'd survive the inevitable war was so far beyond my professorly care.

I… enjoyed her.

I watched her take a finger and trace under her bottom lip, and I wanted to do it myself. But there was no time to daydream like a First Year Hufflepuff.

After another hour researching, I surmised the same as her mumble, however. We needed to go beyond my private books.

"Granger."

She looked up.

"I, too, think we should try the library."

She nodded, looking at the time. It was midnight.

"I will disillusion you. Stay close while I walk," I said, casting the spell before she even had a chance to sit up.

We quickly made it to the library, me only encountering Madame Pince's withering glance as I nodded silently as she exited the room for the night.

"You'll set the wards when you're done then?" she grumbled.

Barely containing an eyeroll, I assured her I would. Granger, meanwhile, must have made it into the library as I could no longer sense her around me.

Shutting the door behind me, I tried to place her in the candle lit room. She must have gone directly to the Restricted Section, bent as she was on the task at hand.

When I made it to that area of the library, I was surprised to find no books pulled from the shelves - but I did see a visible Hermione.

Naked.

No nerves. No lip between her teeth. She leaned against the books, her round thighs crossed, her breasts arching up towards me. She seemed to strum.

"My, my, what's this?" I asked, my mouth dry as my cock sprang to life.

"I need to work the nerves out. I can't concentrate, and I need to focus," she said. Her bookish, matter of fact tone was so at odds with the dilation of her pupils and the hardening of her nipples that I nearly laughed. It was incredibly erotic to be lectured by a student in a library. Such a twist in the power dynamic.

It was even more arousing to realize she was suggesting an action I had only fantasized about - fucking in the library.

I threw off my cloak, not bothering to cast a single silencing charm. She noticed and grinned wickedly. She always seemed to get off on the riskiest couplings. A side effect, I imagine, from breaking the rules regularly since she was 12.

I went to her, my hands laced through her hair, inhaling her face as I crushed my own lips to hers. I was all nerves, too - even the scant chance we could modify the Polyjuice potion contained so many tantalizing possibilities that I might have been aroused solely from that. I wondered why neither Dumbledore nor the Dark Lord had ever considered its possibility; I, of all Potions Masters, would have had the skill to figure it out. But then, neither master had Granger spouting ideas at them between rounds of fellatio. Though Granger certainly joined their ranks in terms of outrageous plans with an almost pathological desire to fulfill them.

She rapidly unbuttoned my shirt, pulling it out from my pants as I laved her neck, my hands sliding down to grab her ass and grip her closer to me. Her breathy gasps grew louder; I thought briefly if I should cast a silencing charm, but was too excited by how loud she was growing in such a public space, even if it was nearly 1 in the morning.

Perhaps I was a bit of an exhibitionist at heart, too.

She unbuckled me, sliding my pants and underthings down in one go. I knew how wet she'd be from this little encounter - sliding into her as she stood against the shelves, I had my confirmation. She wrapped her legs around me, her head lulling against the books - books jostling and rustling, seemingly offended by the deed being done upon their spines.

I kept thrusting, her hands hugging me to her as I buried my face into the crook of her neck and shoulder, inhaling the sweet perspiration coming off of her.

We heard a sound. We both froze; she looked towards the main area of the library. How could someone be here this late? Another professor? A delinquent student?

Granger seemed to realize that we were hidden nonetheless, as she wiggled her hips against me.

"Be silent," I whispered, thrusting back into her before I lost any more hardness from our interruption.

She nodded, running a hand up to my hair and locking lips with me.

The move made sense when, a second later, we heard another thud in the main room and she - all naughty student about to get caught stealing an apple from the teacher's desk - came hard. Her whole body seemed to grip my cock as she came, her moans flowing into my mouth rather than the open air. I followed soon after.

She looked at me pointedly before I cast a Disillusionment spell on her again, quickly arranging my clothes back to professionalism.

A few minutes later, she reappeared, having negated the spell. She was still nude.

"There's no one; I even cast a charm to sense if anyone was here to alert us when we came here. Maybe one of the books was angry about our, uh, library behavior?" She grinned.

I shrugged. I also hadn't sensed anyone. But I certainly sensed Granger's interest in the illicit when she walked backwards to a table in the middle of the library, spreading her legs as she sat on top.

It was another hour before we actually did any research.