Severus Snape sighed in disgust and wiped the grimy fingerprints off his ingredient jars. Damn kids and their sticky fingers.
"Professor?"
Severus, startled, allowed the jar to slip through his hands, where it shattered on the floor. He rounded angrily on the owner of the voice.
Hermione Granger, eyes wide, began to kneel down to pick up the glass fragments and scattered ingredients, apologizing profusely.
"Miss Granger," Severus said shortly, pulling her to her feet. "Can I help you with something?"
"Er... I was wondering, sir, about the essay you assigned."
"Yes, Miss Granger?" Severus bit back a very long diatribe, berating the girl for interrupting him about something as trivial as an essay.
"I know you assigned two rolls of parchment, but would more be alright? Say, four?"
"You won't receive extra credit, you realize."
"Oh, oh, of course, yes. I mean, no. I mean-"
Severus held up his hand, holding back a sigh.
"Four rolls will be fine, Miss Granger. Is that all?"
"Yes, sir," Hermione answered, barely restraining her grin. "Thank you."
Severus scowled when she had gone, then sighed, repairing the jar with a wave of his wand. He bent and cleaned up the ingredients, then stood, inspecting the plants in his hands. Ruined, probably by something on the floor.
Annoyed, he sighed again and got rid of the plants, stalking over to his desk and snatching up the papers already on the desk, then storming into his office and slamming the door behind him.
"Miss Granger," Severus called at the end of class the following Friday. Hermione looked back at him and he beckoned her towards the desk. She said something to Ron and Harry, who both glanced distrustfully at Severus but nodded and left with the rest of the students.
Hermione approached the desk after everyone had gone, slinging her bag over her shoulder.
"Yes, sir?" she asked, looking very slightly nervous.
"Miss Granger-"
"Is it my essay, sir?"
"Er, no," Severus answered, glancing down at the large roll consisting of six, not four, smaller rolls. "No. I'm just notifying you of your detention."
"Detention?" Hermione gasped. "For what?"
"The ingredients I dropped on Monday were ruined and I need more. Seeing as how it's more or less your fault, I'm giving you a detention. Tomorrow night in the Forbidden Forest. Meet me there at ten o'clock."
"Yes, sir," Hermione answered, very quietly.
"That's all. You may go."
Hermione nodded and slowly left the classroom.
"What'd Snape want?" Ron asked as Hermione sat in the chair the boys had saved for her.
"He gave me a detention," Hermione answered sulkily.
"For what?" Harry asked incredulously. Hermione sighed.
"Monday, I surprised him... some ingredient got ruined. I have to go with him to get more."
"When?" Ron asked.
"Tomorrow night. In the Forest."
Ron made an odd sort of sputtering noise and Hermione frowned at him, pulling a book from her bag.
"Ron, just don't."
Ron scowled and sat back in his chair, muttering something that sounded very much like "greasy git".
The next night Hermione set out from Gryffindor Tower at 9:30, wanting to be early and have to be waiting for Snape rather than the other way around.
Once outside she lit her wand and headed for the edge of the forest. She swept the edge of the forest with the light to make sure Snape wasn't waiting and, satisfied, stood in a spot and waited.
The night seemed to be growing colder by the minute and by the time ten o'clock rolled around, she was shivering, her arms folded tightly across her chest.
Snape came striding towards Hermione at five past ten and stopped in front of her. He stared at her a moment.
"How long have you been out here?"
"A half hour," Hermione answered, wondering if her teeth chattering was just in her head or if she was really hearing it.
Snape gave Hermione an appraising look and then sighed and pulled off his cloak, handing it to Hermione.
"Put it on. No need for you to freeze while we're out here."
"Thank you," Hermione murmured, wrapping the cloak around her shoulders.
"Better?" Snape asked. Hermione nodded and Snape lit his wand, motioning for Hermione to do the same. She did so and followed Snape into the forest.
"Just keep beside me and try not to make too much noise. I won't let anything happen to you."
Hermione swallowed hard and clutched Snape's cloak tighter, keeping her wand beam pointed in front of her.
She stayed as close to Snape as she dared as they walked throuhg the forest, nervously looking around. She hated coming into the forest at night, just because of the things she knew were in here.
As she thought this, there was a rustling behind her and she moved so close to Snape that she trod on his robes. He looked at her, annoyed, and she took a step back.
"Sorry, sir, I just heard something..."
The rustling was heard again and an arrow suddenly came shooting out from behind Hermione and Snape, embedding its tip in a tree just beside Snape. Hermione heard him curse under his breath and turned with him to see a centaur amble out of the underbrush, bow at the ready.
"Lower your weapon," Snape said evenly, reaching over and pushing Hermione so that she was behind him now.
"We will not hurt the girl if she does not give us reason to," the centaur said, though he did not lower his bow.
"All the same," Snape countered, now standing almost completely in front of Hermione.
"Lower your bow," a deep voice said, the owner striding up beside the grey centaur. Hermione, peering around Snape, recognized the new centaur as Bane. The grey centaur followed this command and Bane took a few steps forward.
"What is your name?" he asked.
"Severus Snape. I am a professor at the school."
"Ah, yes. And the girl?"
"Hermione Granger. A student at the school."
Bane frowned. "A student and a professor, in the forest, so late?"
"I resent the insinuation," Snape said shortly. "This is an assignment. We did not come here to bother you or your people. Our destination is the spring. We will not go beyond that."
Bane surveyed Snape for a moment.
"And you maintain your intentions with the girl are noble?" the centaur finally said.
"Yes," Snape snapped impatiently.
"Very well then, you may go."
"Thank you," Snape muttered, turning back towards Hermione and stepped around her to lead the way.
Hermione followed him, glancing back to see the centaurs still watching them. Hermione stepped up beside Snape.
"What was all that about noble intentions?" she asked a few minutes later. Severus sighed and looked at her, wondering if he should tell her.
"Years and years back," he began, leading Hermione around a patch of dense underbrush, "before I was a student here and then again before I became a teacher, there were two incidents involving a male professor, different each time, bringing female students into the forest under false pretenses. From what I was told, the centaurs stepped in, interrupting the second occurance, and while they harbor great mistrust against humans, they do not condone harming children, and so are rather watchful when students and professors enter the forest."
Hermione looked alarmed at this information and Severus feared for a moment that he had terribly frightened the girl.
"Miss Granger-" he started, ducking under a low hanging branch.
"Who were they?" she asked, walking under the same branch. "The professors."
"They no longer teach at Hogwarts."
"Oh," Hermione said, very softly, pulling the cloak closer around herself.
"Miss Granger, my intention was not to frighten you, although you did ask."
"Oh, no. I'm fine. It's just strange to think of something like that happening at Hogwarts."
"Although wizards and Muggles tend to be very different, Miss Granger, we are all human beings when you get down to it," Severus said, stepping up onto a ledge and extending his hand to help Hermione up. "Born to procreate and die, but fettered by our desires, to be loved, to be accepted, to be successful. In the end, no one is ever happy."
"I don't believe that," Hermione said quietly.
"And what exactly don't you believe, Miss Granger?" Severus replied, looking back at her.
"That no one's ever happy when they die."
"Everyone always wishes they could change at least one thing in their past," Severus said.
"But that doesn't make them unhappy," Hermione pressed, tugging her robes from a rather thorny bush. "Some people learn to accept the fact they can't change their past, and they move forward."
Severus stopped walking and looked at Hermione. She stared back, unconcerned.
"It's just what I think, sir."
Severus nodded. "Well, you're entitled to your opinion." He turned and continued walking, hearing Hermione coming along behind him. He had felt like she was speaking directly about him. Perhaps she was.
They continued on to the stream and gathered the necessary plants, then headed carefully back to the castle.
Snape bid Hermione good night at the staircase and continued on to the dungeons. Hermione watched him for a minute, then turned and headed for Gryffindor Tower.
It wasn't until she reached her dorm that she realized she still had Snape's cloak on. She took it off and folded it, noticing the smell. Kind of like old books: warm and comforting, to her at least. Smiling, slightly surprised, she stuck the folded cloak into her bag, ready to give to Snape on Monday.
Hermione returned Severus's cloak at the end of class on Monday and then left with Ron and Harry.
Severus watched her leave, pressing the cloak between his hands. He never would've imagined he'd have had the conversation he and Hermione had had Saturday night. While it hadn't been the height of intellectual discussion, it had been stimulating, even though brief.
Part of him wanted her back, if only to talk with someone who was possibly very close to his, if not on the same, intellectual level. However, beyond giving the girl another detention, he had no way to get her in here. But he wasn't a Slytherin for nothing. He would find a way.
The next day, Severus watched Hermione very closely, looking for a reason to give her a detention. He couldn't help but admire her technique as she worked, her ingredients laid out before her, her timing perfect in simmering, stirring, and adding. Her only flaw, it seemed, was choosing to sit next to exponentially weaker person, and this person was embodied in Neville Longbottom, who Severus felt was better off packing up his cauldron, but by some fluke had ended up in his N.E.W.T. class.
Now Severus watched as Neville picked grabbed the right ingredient but from Hermione's workstation instead of his own, consequently lining Hermione up to use the wrong ingredient at the wrong time, and leading Hermione to her first melted cauldron in her six years at Hogwarts.
Hermione's face was twisted in horror as she watched Severus clear the mess and he almost felt sorry for her as her eyes shimmered with tears. Longbottom looked as though he wanted to die, knowing full well that Hermione's first failing grade was his fault.
"See me after class, Miss Granger," Severus said, very softly and probably more kindly than he'd originally intended. She nodded silently, staring at the twisted remains of her cauldron as she picked up her bag and moved to the back of the classroom.
"Everyone, back to work," Severus snapped.
Slowly the class turned back to their cauldrons, Longbottom clearly shaken, and Weasley and Potter looking very distracted as they kept glancing over at Hermione, who was now sitting at a table in the very back of the classroom, her head resting on her arms, her face hidden. Draco Malfy, on the other hand, looked as though he was trying very hard not to gloat, and Severus frowned, longing to wipe the smirk off the blonde's face, simply because the boy irritated him immensely.
The bell rang at the end of class and the students all brought their potions to the desk, excepting, of course, Hermione, who didn't move as the students slowly filed out of the room; she ignored Ron and Harry's attempts to talk to her, and finally, the boys gave up and left, followed closely by Longbottom who glanced, stricken, at Hermione before leaving.
After the last student had gone, Severus looked at Hermione.
"Miss Granger," he said. She looked up, sniffling and wiped her eyes.
"If you could come here," Severus continued. Hermione stood, slipping the strap of her bag onto her shoulder, and walked to the desk.
"Are you giving me detention?" she asked quietly, looking up at Severus. He nodded.
"It was, after all, your lack of attention that led to the destruction of your potion and the melting of your cauldron. Which you will need to replace before too long."
Hermione nodded. "Yes, sir."
"Your detention will be this Saturday night, straight after dinner, in here."
Hermione nodded again. "Yes, sir." She turned to go, but Severus stopped her.
"Miss Granger."
Hermione turned to look at him.
"You may write an essay on how to properly brew this potion. It will earn you a passing grade on this assignment. Not your usual one hundred, but better than a zero."
Hermione nodded again, looking very slightly happier than before. "Thank you, sir."
Severus nodded dismissively. "You may go."
Hermione left the classroom and Severus sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. His intent had not been to destroy the girl's perfect grade, though by no means was her botched potion his fault.
However, he would see her Saturday night, and he had given her the opportunity to save her grade from its dangerous impending plummet.
Knowing full well she would deliver more than a passing grade, but also that he could give her no more than that, Severus went ahead and wrote the grade in his gradebook, watching the her new average compute. Still the highest in her class, but not by much, as Malfoy trailed closely behind her. It wouldn't take Hermione long to bring her grade back up, though.
Severus sat down and graded the potions quickly, recording the grades and watching the averages change.
"Highest to lowest," he muttered, tapping the book with his wand. The names rearranged themselves, and Severus, though satisfied to see Hermione still at the top, was also annoyed to see Malfoy just trailing behind her.
Severus reordered the names and snapped the book shut, clearing the potions and placing the book in its usual place in his desk, the top right hand drawer, then headed into his chambers to try and ease his headache.
Saturday night Hermione was punctual as always, calling to Severus as she entered the classroom.
He stepped into the room, papers in his hand to grade, and directed Hermione to a cauldron full of soapy water, telling her to scrub down all the tables.
Hermione nodded silently and magicked the heavy cauldron to the back of the classroom, pulling off and piling her robes on the counter.
She rolled her sleeves up and reached into the cauldron, grasping the scrub brush and bringing it up onto the nearest table.
Severus and Hermione worked in silence, Hermione scrubbing and Severus grading.
An hour later, Hermione had only finished half of the tables and she paused briefly to push her hair away from her face.
Severus looked up at her as he recorded the final grade.
"You can take a break, Miss Granger," he said, glancing down to see the new averages before closing the book and putting it away.
"Thank you, sir," Hermione murmured, dropping the brush into the cauldron and rubbing her shoulder.
"Have you replaced your cauldron yet?" Severus asked. Hermione looked up, seemingly surprised at Severus making apparent conversation with her.
"I've ordered it, yes. I should have it next week."
Severus nodded. "You don't seem as confident using the class cauldrons."
"I'm not," Hermione agreed. "Although I wouldn't have thought you'd have noticed."
"How's that?" Severus asked, leaning forward, crossing his arms on the table.
"I just didn't think you would notice something like that." Hermione paused. "Or me, even."
"You're a good worker, Miss Granger," Severus said matter-of-factly.
"Thank you, sir," Hermione said, smiling very slightly. Severus nodded shortly.
After a moment of silence that was threatening to become an awkward moment, Hermione bent and picked up the brush and set about completing her task.
As she finished the last table, Severus stood to inspect her work, starting from the back and working his way to the front of the room where Hermione stood, rubbing her left shoulder.
"Very well, Miss Granger," Severus said when he reached Hermione. She nodded, relieved, and started towards the door.
"Miss Granger," Severus called. Hermione turned, pulling on her robes.
"I don't typically ask this of students, given that none have ever met my standards, but I was curious to see if you would like to accompany me to a convention. Testing of new potions, lectures, debates. You would be with me as an assistant, but I do know you have theories of your own, and I think they would serve to further the convention." Severus paused, eyeing Hermione. "Are you interested?"
"Yes," Hermione answered, rather breathlessly.
"Very well then. Next Friday we will discuss it further."
Hermione nodded, looking as though she might burst from holding in her excitement.
"Alright, sir, thank you. Very much." Hermione smiled politely and left the classroom.
Severus raised his eyebrows as he heard a small shriek echo down the corridor and he shook his head slightly, though he couldn't supress a small smile as he cleared away the soapy water and put the cauldron up, entering his chambers for bed.