All My Agony Fades Away | By : astartelydianna Category: Harry Potter > Het - Male/Female > Snape/Hermione Views: 5365 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0 |
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor any recognisable places, characters or plot lines and I make no money from this story. |
Author’s Notes: Wow! To everyone who took the time to review THANK YOU! A huge thank you because it’s really encouraging to read! In fact you can all have virtual brownies and sweets! I’m hoping you’ll continue to enjoy this story as it progresses, there is soooo much still to happen! A couple of people have mentioned errors in this story, it isn’t beta’d. Both my beta and I are very busy at the moment so it will be done at some point but for now I just hope it’s legible enough for you to read it. I’ve have a crazy week with my youngest learning to crawl -_- now I have to watch her like a hawk as well as my son!
Disclaimer: It being Fanfiction.Net I am sure you’re all well aware that I don’t own Harry Potter or anything else that belongs to the franchise etc. And that I make no money from this...unfortunately! How awesome would that be though?
Chapter Ten
Hermione found herself reflecting a couple of days later that the day of her second sex education lesson had been the most that Professor Snape had ever spoken to her in one go. When he had spoken to her about her attempt at teaching it had been the nicest he had ever been to her and the most like an adult he had ever treated her. It was actually a shame that he had barely said two words to her since but she didn’t bring it up for fear of irritating him into never talking to her again. Not that he had been horrible to her since she had become his potions apprentice; actually he’d been pretty civil...or as civil as Severus Snape got anyway but he didn’t exactly talk to her nicely either.
Basically he had been saying very little to her and doing the bare minimum of communication to get her through her master’s degree. However for whatever reason on that day he had spoken to her much more freely and nicely than he ever had done before and liked it. It had been nice to be able to talk to him on a more intellectual level, closer to equals. Now it was back to normal...he was avoiding all conversation with her and keeping his distance.
“Hermione, you should eat something you missed dinner last night.” The young DADA Professor next to her said nudging her gently.
“Sorry, Gideon...I’ve been so busy lost in thought these past few days.” She apologised.
“Do you want to talk about it?” he asked. Hermione considered it, would it really be so bad to give Gideon the chance that he asked for...to confide in him...
“Not really.” She sighed. “It’s not that I don’t want to talk to you about it, it’s just that I think if I start talking about it I might not be able to stop and I can’t afford that kind of breakdown until at least Friday evening.” He chuckled at that. “...maybe on Friday evening we could wander down to Hogsmeade and I can talk your ear off then?”
“Really?” he asked seeming surprised. “I just assumed...”
“I’m sorry about before, it was rude of me.” She said quietly. “You’re a great guy I don’t know what I was being so worried about.”
~*~*~
Hermione cleared the workstation and glanced up at Professor Snape who stood stocking the shelves of his ingredient’s store room. She caught him rubbing at his chest with a slight wince and wondered if that was still due to his injury.
Her potion had gone near perfectly from what she could tell but she certainly didn’t feel like testing it. Who was stupid enough to test veritiserum just before going on a date?
“Is that all Professor?” she asked him.
“I suppose, since you are so eager to leave.” He replied, without turning to look at her.
“Are you alright Professor?” she asked, noticing he sounded just as miserable as usual but with fat less bite. He turned to look at her.
“I’m fine Miss Granger, enjoy your evening.” He replied evenly.
“Do you want me to help you finish that up?” she asked, walking over to him and noticing how much there still was to do.
“Go.” He told her firmly.
“If you’re sure, I’ll see you tomorrow Professor.” She said softly.
Once in her rooms she quickly showered and changed before heading to meeting Gideon at the castle entrance. He greeted her warmly and they started the trek down the grounds towards the small village.
“So what’s been on your mind; apprenticeship getting on top of you or just Severus being an old bat as usual?” he asked, dropping his arm over her shoulders.
“Just the amount of work I suppose...and he’s not an old bat really you know?” she replied. “I miss my friends, I’ve always been into my studies so I didn’t think this would be any different but...after a year out of school travelling together in a tent; not seeing them every day, not talking to them it’s really weird.”
“That’s understandable.” He agreed. “Are you going to see them this weekend?”
“On Sunday I hope to spend some time with them.” She sighed. “They’re blaming everything on Professor Snape being a git too...but he actually isn’t that bad Gideon. I mean obviously he isn’t a barrel of laughs but he certainly isn’t as bad as everyone thinks.”
“Got a soft spot of for the old guy eh?” he asked.
“I prefer to think of it as opening my eyes a little to look at the big picture and stop judging books by their covers...I read a lot of books and believe me the contents are usually far more interesting than the covers.” She laughed. “After all almost everyone thought he was a true death eater for a long time and look how that turned out.”
“You feel guilty for judging him?” he asked.
“A little I suppose...but I was always a little confused by the events that happened. Harry recounted the events of that night over and over but that one thing that bothered me was that he made Harry keep quiet and hide. If he was truly evil he would have captured Harry and killed Dumbledore in one swoop – after all there were plenty of other death eaters there to assist.” She explained. “I always thought that perhaps even if he was a death eater that maybe he hadn’t meant for things to go as far as they did...Sirius and Remus explained some things about the first war to me once. Apparently Tom Riddle was a very good speaker, very good at rallying people together and promising the earth...with that kind of influence why wouldn’t a teenage boy with no friends be lured in by the promise of power and a place to belong?”
“I agree with that I suppose...but he still made the choice. I’m a firm believer in making your own choices and from the sounds of Harry Potter’s history he could have made a lot of poor choices himself but didn’t.” Gideon pointed out.
“Yes...I suppose.” She agreed. They walked the rest of the way in silence and he held the door of the pub open for her before they ordered drinks and took a seat. They talked for a good few hours before Hermione realised that it was nearing midnight. They parted ways at the entrance after he caught her by surprise with a kiss goodnight. She was nearly at her rooms when she heard a voice behind her.
“Miss Granger, I do hope that this late night will not affect your work tomorrow.”
“Of course not Professor, have you ever known my work to suffer after a late night studying?” she asked. He looked thoughtful then frowned as he seemed to come to a conclusion.
“In fact you are correct; I haven’t ever known your work to suffer; even when you took all twelve owls...a pretty impossible feat.” He said slowly, Hermione swallowed thickly under his gaze; Severus Snape was not a stupid man...he had guessed her secret.
“Well, you know me.” She said weakly.
“I do not know where you got it Miss Granger and I do not want to know.” He told her. She didn’t reply and made to keep moving. She felt his hand grasp her wrist and stop her. She turned back to him dreading what would follow but he didn’t look angry and his grip on her wrist loosened so she didn’t feel threatened at all. “I trust I do not need to remind you of what you already know, but be careful Miss Granger. You do not want to continue down this path until you are unwittingly a decade older than your classmates...someone will notice.” She didn’t know what to say, should she continue to deny it or just agree with him? He was an intelligent wizard, one of the most intelligent people she’d ever met...and a Slytherin so the chances of convincing him that she didn’t know what he was talking about were very slim.
She slid her arm so that his hand was in hers rather than around her wrist and squeezed it firmly.
“I’m always careful.” She said quietly. “Thank you.” She turned and quickly headed to her rooms before anything else could be said. She closed the door behind her and pressed her back against the door, her heart was racing, her hand was warm and her cheeks flushed...all from touching Professor Snape’s hand? What was she twelve?! She shook her head and thoroughly chastised herself before getting herself into bed. She didn’t use her time turner tonight; she figured that she would have just enough hours sleep without it.
She stared up at the ceiling from her bed and thought about her evening with Gideon, he was perfect for her. He was a great friend, they got along well together and she was able to have intelligent conversation with him...he was gorgeous of course and a capable wizard. So why did it feel like she was trying to date Harry? There wasn’t a starting attraction or spark, she didn’t instantly fancy him which meant that chemistry was lacking but she mentally chided herself for that thought also; chemistry wasn’t the most important thing in the world. Besides what was to say that the chemistry wouldn’t come later? They had only spent one evening together so it was far too early to be picking holes.
Morning brought Hermione more confusion as for the first time since the beginning of the school year she dreamt about her potions Professor; when it had been Gideon that she had kissed the night before. It felt so wrong to dream of someone else.
She dug around in her clothes and reluctantly pulled on the clothes that she had brought for her potions apprenticeship. The clothes in the wizarding world; whilst a lot of them were pretty, were usually a lot less comfortable than muggle ones. On her Saturday mornings she longed to just pull on a pair of jeans or leggings and a baggy jumper but instead she found herself pulling on stockings, her below the knee length skirt and blouse, as well as her jacket that buttoned all the way up to her neck. The skirt and jacket were made of an itchy wool material that had driven her crazy to start with but after the Hogwarts elves had washed them a couple of times the itchiness had faded.
She made her way down the hall to the potion’s lab fixing her hair into a bun as she entered and placed her notes on worktop.
“That was cutting it rather close Miss Granger.” A voice called from the storeroom. “You are in fact a minute late.”
“Forty seconds actually.” She replied. “If you actually want to know it’s because I pulled a ladder in my stocking while putting it on and had to find another pair since they are too delicate to be fixed well with magic.” It was a total lie but it was one she had used before since talking about something in detail that would bore men usually worked.
“Spare me the details Miss Granger, perhaps a favour in place of your lateness?” He enquired, placing an empty flask on the worktop. “A blood sample perhaps?”
“For experimenting on me?” she asked, lifting the flask.
“No, that will be for after the summer. This is just for ingredients.” He smirked. Hermione’s mouth twitched as she held back a laugh.
“Of course; virgin’s blood.” She nodded. “I should’ve known that you would find some way to exploit me.”
“Now, now Miss Granger I’m simply taking advantage of a free source of a rather hard to obtain and expensive ingredient.” He replied. “Exactly how many pure witches of age do you think wander around offering themselves up for ingredients? It certainly puts the price of such an ingredient up considerably.”
“I didn’t offer, but since you asked so nicely.” She snorted, eying the flask nervously. “Knife?” He handed her a clean silver blade and she took it hovering it over her palm before changing her mind and moving it to her wrist. If she was going to fill the flask it would be easier from her wrist. With a quick cut she dropped the knife onto the worktop and held the open wound over the flask so that the blood dribbled into it.
As the blood slowed down he took the flask and corked it before taking her hand in his and hovered his free hand over the wound. Hermione glanced up at his face in surprise as the skin quickly knitted itself back together without him uttering a word or using his wand. He said nothing and simply dropped her hand before going to place the flask of her blood in the stockroom.
“Thanks.” she mumbled shyly as he headed over with a piece of parchment.
“With the exception of the Mater Optans this is your final compulsory potion. You will need to come back tomorrow morning to complete the final steps but since it is your day off you may leave tomorrow as soon as you have finished it.” He told her.
“The Mater Optans potion...what am I going to do about that one?” she asked.
“We can leave it for the time being, perhaps by the time we get to our last few months it will no longer be a problem, I’ve written to several of the master’s and to the potion master’s guild themselves to ask what to do in such a situation.” He explained. “We can forget about it for the time being and focus on other things.”
“So if this is my last potion does that mean that we’re starting the experimental stage sooner than planned?” she asked hopefully.
“You still have more written work to do and an exam so not quite.” He replied leaving her to do her work. She smiled to herself; she was catching up.
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