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Love Is No Big Truth	By : honeybee Category: Harry Potter > Het - Male/Female > Snape/Hermione Views: 10389 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor any of the characters from the books or movies. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 9
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- 11
10. History Repeating

Hermione Apparated
home only to grab her coat and went for a walk in the park. She sat on a bench
near the water lily pond and stared at the pretty flowers. Snape was friends
with Harry�s mum. Wow. She wondered if they had remained friends after Lily
started dating James Potter. From what Harry said, she was certain that there
was no love lost between those two. And what did he mean about Wielding making
her special in Voldemort�s eyes? There were so many things that she didn�t dare
to ask. If he was ever going to talk, he would do it on his own accord.
Remembering the hurt in his eyes disturbed her and she didn�t like the thought
of bringing it back. She firmly decided to push down her natural curiosity and
keep her questions to herself�for the time being.

***

Sunday was the last
day before Hermione�s classes began and she resolutely spent it relaxing with
Viktor and two of his friends. They went to see a movie and had lunch in a
small restaurant in the outskirts of the mountain. Later she and Viktor shared
a bottle of wine at their flat and went to bed early.

On the next morning, Hermione
found herself in a large laboratory with six other witches and wizards. When
Master Borisov strode into the room, he halted in front of his apprentices and
gave them a measuring look and a very disconcerting smile.

�Welcome to university
classes. Every one of you has been accepted on the basis of your academic
achievements and excellent recommendations. Now, let�s see what you can do.
Everyone, take a station.�

After everyone had a
place, Borisov started walking along the bench, giving out parchments with
instructions.

�You can find all the
necessary ingredients in the storeroom.� He waved his wand and a green door
appeared on the wall. �Gather everything you need and start working!� He sat on
a small desk at the end of the workbench, silently observing his students.

Hermione quickly
scanned the parchment�her assignment was a pain-killing potion. She went to the
storeroom to get a cauldron and her ingredients. Checking the list in her hand,
she frowned. The valerian roots were in much larger quantity than she
remembered. She looked at Master Borisov, ready to question him, when she saw
the amused glimmer in his eyes and realization dawned. The old bastard is testing us! Hiding her own smile, she grabbed the
right amount of roots and headed back to her station.

An hour later, Master Borisov
started walking along the bench, peeking in every cauldron. Apparently, not
everyone had realized the deliberate mistakes in the assignments�several people
were staring in horror as their potions hissed and bubbled, and one girl had
cast a containment shield to stop the noxious fumes as her healing salve
coagulated into a charred mess. Only Hermione and one other girl were still
working.

Master Borisov
banished the ruined potions and proceeded to give the culprits hell. Hermione
listened on while tending to her own potion and she realized how Professor
Snape was able to reduce his students to tears with a few choice words. He
simply had a very good teacher.

Gone was the kind old
man that had offered her refreshments. Scathing comments rained upon the poor
students and Hermione winced in sympathy. Her own potion was ready and she
removed the cauldron from the fire.

�You are not in school
anymore; you are supposed to have some ability of independent thought and judgment.
There are trained baboons which can follow instructions blindly! If your
parchments said �pour undiluted armadillo bile down your throat and do
jumping-jacks until it dissolves your internal organs�, would you have done it?
Think before you put something in your cauldron. Mister Schmidt, what was wrong
with your recipe?�

The blonde skinny boy
gulped and pushed up his glasses, reminding Hermione of Harry.

�T-t-the horned toad
liver should be added after the potion simmers over low heat for thirty
minutes, not before.�

�And can you tell me
why?�

�The heat neutralizes
the neurotoxin of the rainbow snake�s poison. Otherwise it reacts with the bile
acids form the toad liver and the resulting compound is highly corrosive when
heated.� The boy looked forlornly to his workbench, a huge hole where the
caustic potion had eaten through it.

�Correct, Mister
Schmidt. I trust you will be more careful in the future.� He repaired the hole
and turned back to the others.

�This should be an
important lesson for you all! As apprentices, you cannot make simple mistakes
like this, and follow instructions without doubt. You should know enough about
the way ingredients interact. I was deliberately misleading in today�s
assignment, but what if you run into a botched recipe in a book? It happens
every so often. You have to learn to follow through the whole process of
brewing and to be able to understand why every step is necessary. Do not ever
take anything for granted, for there lays the way to premature and painful
death! Am I understood?�

The chastened students
muttered a quiet �Yes.� Then he turned to Hermione and the other girl who had
completed her potion. �You two, don�t get you heads in the clouds. It�s
commendable that you noticed the mistakes in your instructions, but you still
have a lot to learn. For next time, I want a one-foot essay from everyone on
the effects of the botched recipes and why they occurred. The two of you, being
so smart, should be able to figure out what would have happened had you followed
through.�

He grabbed a stack of
parchments from his desk and gave them to the blonde boy to hand out.

�This is your reading
list for the first semester. The books are available in the library. For
tomorrow, you have to read the first two chapters of �Alchemy: The Roots of Potion Brewing�. We will have a discussion in
class and then we will brew some more. That�s all for today, you may go.�

He swirled around and
strode out of the lab in a scarily familiar way. Hermione groaned and pinched
the bridge of her nose. She had saddled herself with the man who taught Severus
Snape how to be mean. Way to go, Granger!

�Hey, at least you got your potion right!� a
cheerful voice said in her ear. She turned around to see the blonde boy
proffering his hand. �I�m Thomas.�

�Hermione.� She
introduced herself. The other five students approached them and soon she knew
everyone�s names. The girl with the poisonous fumes was Bella from Spain, and
the other three boys were Nikola and Jordan from Bulgaria, and Goran from
Serbia. The only other girl to finish her potion was Iva, also from Bulgaria.
Hermione disliked her immediately because something about Iva reminded her of
first-year Draco Malfoy. She smirked, imagining how Master Borisov dealt with
people who thought themselves better than everyone else. Iva confirmed her
suspicions when she collected her things and walked out, glancing at everyone
as if she found them somewhat lacking.

�Wow, she seems stuck
up.� Thomas commented. �What is she,
Queen of the world or something?�

�I think the Master
will take the wind out of her sails if she continues to act like that.� Bella
had a vindictive smirk with looked odd on her sweet rounded face.

Hermione privately
agreed, but she had dealt with enough peer animosity in Hogwarts and she didn�t
want to go through all that again.

�Yes, she seems a
little too sure of herself, but it�s not nice talking about her behind her
back. Maybe she�s not so bad.�

Everyone looked
unconvinced, but dropped the topic and lined out of the lab.

True to form, Hermione
headed directly to the library to take the necessary books. The librarian had
them ready and reduced in minutes. As she was leaving, she bumped into Viktor
at the door. He was brandishing a list of books that rivaled hers. Smiling at
her, he asked, �How was your first day?�

She groaned. �Let�s
just say that I have every proof that Professor Snape was his apprentice.
Apparently the course included Sarcasm
101, Nastiness for Experts and Melodramatic Behavior in the Classroom: How to Intimidate
Your Students.�

Victor chuckled and
patted her on the shoulder.

�Did he do the botched
recipe trick?�

Hermione gaped at him,
irate.

�You knew and you didn�t tell me?�

�Now where would have
been the fun in that? Besides I was sure you�d figure it out by yourself.�

�Of course I did!� she
huffed. �Okay, I get your point. How was your day?�

�Great! We have been
working on human transfiguration all morning. If we progress quickly, we will
start Animagus training in a month.�

Hermione sighed wistfully.
She really wanted to learn that particular skill, but she had the feeling she
wouldn�t have any time left.

�I have to go now; I have reading and an essay
for tomorrow. See you at home!�

***

The next few days
passed in a whirl of reading, brewing and writing. Master Borisov held a
lecture in the beginning of each day, and it lasted about three hours.
Hermione�s fingers cramped from writing, but she didn�t want to miss a word. He
was truly a Master of his field. He spoke of brewing techniques she had only
heard of, of little-known effects of common ingredients, of every little detail
in the brewing process or the environment could alter a potion. After a short
break for lunch, they would go back to the lab and they would brew until five
or six in the afternoon. He had them working in pairs, working alone, one
person working on two potions at a time. Hermione was dead tired, but she never
thought to complain. Master Borisov was harsh when they made mistakes, but he
never denied praise for a job well done. Professor
Snape seems to have missed that particular point, she thought with some wry
amusement, but she knew it was not exactly true. After all, he had not been in the
position to praise a Muggleborn Gryffindor. And he
had told her she had done well last time. Better than Lily�

When the weekend
finally arrived, Hermione slept until noon. When she woke up she found a note
from Viktor, informing her that he was at his parents and she was welcome for
lunch if she wanted to. Then she realized that she had been too busy to owl
Professor Snape and it was already Saturday. Was he expecting her? She
scrambled out of bed and to the living room, where she was greeted with a
screech by Viktor�s falcon, Tervel. Thank God! She returned to her room and
wrote a short missive.

�Professor Snape,

I will not be able to visit you today, I have
to catch up on my reading and write some essays. The week has been hectic and
busy, and I apologise for not owling you earlier. Is next Saturday convenient
for you to continue our lessons?

Hermione Granger�

She stroked the falcon
as she tied the letter to his leg. Apparently, he knew where he was going, for
he took off right away.

Hermione showered and
dressed and Apparated to the Krums just in time for lunch. Viktor teased her
about oversleeping, but she was too hungry to respond properly. Mrs Krum
frowned and muttered something in Bulgarian as she refilled her plate. Mr Krum
chuckled and translated.

�She says that George
is working you too hard if you don�t have time to eat during the week, and she
will have his hide next time she sees him.�

Hermione blushed. She
really hadn�t eaten much that week. Just then Tervel flew through the window
with a screech and dropped a letter in her lap. Stealing a piece of meat from
her plate, he was out in the garden before Mrs Krum managed to scold him.

�No need to apologize, Miss Granger. I imagine
that George is still the slave-driver he was when I was your age. I shall be
occupied the next weekend, but I would like to give you some reading material.
Just owl me the time you finish classes and meet me at the café where
you found me before. By the way, did George pull the botched recipe trick on
you? I will be gravely disappointed if he managed to get you.

S. S.�

Hermione glared at the
letter. �Does everyone know about this except me?�

�About what, my dear?�
asked Mr Krum, confused.

�Master Borisov�s
botched recipe trick.�

�Oh, that.� He smiled
mischievously. �I�d say everyone who knows him. Don�t fret; he does it every
year and I�m sure you didn�t fall for it.�

�So everyone keeps
telling me,� she muttered as she dug back into her lunch.

***

The next week was much
similar to the first, except that Viktor�s mum started sending food for them
every day. Hermione had to admit it was convenient, for neither she nor Viktor
had time to cook. She was already certain that she had to introduce Ana Krum
and Molly Weasley; they were definitely birds of a feather.

Hermione sent a short
note to Professor Snape to confirm their meeting at six o�clock on Tuesday in
the café. She wondered what exactly he was occupied with, but again she
decided to keep the personal questions to a minimum. The weekend was spent
buried in textbooks and essays, yet somehow Tuesday could not come fast enough.

A/N: Two chapters at once, I haven't done that since the beginning. Thanks for reading, everyone.
- 9
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- 11
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Love Is No Big Truth