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This Is The Way The World Ends.	By : tulipsaside Category: Harry Potter > Het - Male/Female > Snape/Hermione Views: 7312 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 1
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
- 11
- 12
- 13
Chapter 11. Glory and Consequence.

Hermione had spent the remainder of her weekend avoiding Severus Snape at all cost, so it was much foreboding that she headed to Potions, Monday morning, where evading him was simply impossible. She peered cautiously into the classroom and breathed a sigh of relief, before heading to her empty table. Just before reaching her stool her foot caught and sent her floundering into what would have been a very hard cold stone floor if it had not been for a stabling grip. She turned her head sharply to see who had caught her, and almost immediately felt the wind deflate from her lungs. Severus Snape stood next to her not quite meeting her eye and he let go of her hand almost instantly.

"Black tripped you." He said by way of explanation before moving away to take his seat.

Hermione looked over to where Sirius and James was gagging with laughter. "Bloody, gits."

Hermione continued to her seat, trying to keep an impassive look on her face. She took the seat to Severus� left noticing that he kept his head down ignoring her completely.

"Hello, Severus." Said Lily, cheerfully as she ambled into the room. "How come you weren�t in Hogsmeade this weekend, I had thought you�d wanted to go and see if the new copies of Most Potent Potions were in?" She smiled at him.

"My whereabouts, are none of your concern." He said acidly, not even glancing toward her.

Hermione kept very still focusing hard on a dent in the worktable. She could hear the indignation Lily was exuding, without having to look at her at all.

"There�s no need to be so short with me." She practically spat.

"There is, when you insist on drivelling on like you�re my keeper." He sneered.

�He�s in a foul mood,� thought Hermione, privately. Chancing a glance toward Lily, her face was red with embarrassment and anger, her breath was coming in quick pants as if she was firing up for a comment on what she really thought of his behaviour. Thankfully, Slughorn interrupted any such argument.

"Good morning class." He said jovially. "If you�d please take out your books, we�ll begin starting right away on the Draught of Living Death. It should take the remainder of the class to brew so please begin. The instructions are on page ten and the ingredients are in the cupboard." He stood looking out over the class. "If you�ll leave your essays from Friday on your desk, I shall collect them. Very good, now begin." He finished, clapping his, hands together as the small group of six year students stood up to retrieve the necessary ingredients.

Hermione let Severus get a head start before getting up. She made a long show of looking for her essay and placing it on the corner of her desk. By the time she had it out, Severus was already half way back toward the table. Hermione quickly stood and headed for the cabinet, noticing Lily moving her chair further away from where Severus was beginning to work. Hermione emptied her hands, setting up the tiny vials of asphodel and wormwood, and started chopping the sopophorous bean. She kept glancing at Severus and Lily wondering if they would keep the cautious silence up or start at each other again. However, Lily seemed perfectly content with pretending Severus was not there, instead focusing on James� antics as he balanced the tip of his blade in the middle of his palm.

Next to her, Severus was busy crushing the sopophorous bean with the flat side of his silver knife. When the tiny bean secreted an overabundance of juice, he seemed unexpectedly pleased with himself, as if he was not sure what might have happened. Hermione held back a grin; it was considerably entertaining watching this adolescent version of her Potion Master mucking about with valuable ingredients. Professor Snape would have had a fit if any of his students had tried that. Hermione began stirring the recommended fourteen times while she surreptitiously watched Severus cross out the printed instructions in his book and carefully write in his own. He stopped writing for a moment looking pensive; he reached for his spoon, stirring counter clockwise seven times then seemed to shrug and stir once clockwise. The potion turned lilac instantly. A small smile tugged at his mouth, before he wrote quickly over his textbook. He then reached for the valerian root, but instead of using its shavings as indicated in the instructions, he began dicing it into very fine pieces. He dropped them in carefully before reaching for his quill. The effect was almost immediate. Dark blue smoke billowed up from the cauldron before the whole mixture turned into what looked like pink tar and reek of rotten eggs.

The whole class seemed to freeze, as Slughorn made his way to their desk.

"Experimenting again, Severus?" his voice carried a tone of exasperation.

Severus did not answer; instead, he took out his wand to dispense with the left over smoke.

"I�m afraid there isn�t any time left to start over. Please, clean up your station. You�ll have to try again next class." The Professor gave him an irritable glance before moving away with a handkerchief over his nose.

"Lily, what a fantastic job you�ve done. This is a fine example of a perfectly brewed Draught of Living Death." He beamed at her before turning back toward his desk.

Lily shot Severus a haughty smirk, as James and Sirius were clutching their sides in laughter. Severus gritted his teeth and spelled away the congealed mess with his wand. Angrily, he started replacing the unused ingredients into their vials.

Hermione bottled her draught before cleaning up. When the bell rang, Severus was the first one out of class followed quickly by Sirius then James, who, if their looks were anything to go by, were up to nothing good. Hermione quickly hurried after them.

"I see you got yourself a girlfriend now, Snivelly?" called James at the back of Severus� retreating head.

Sirius laughed loudly, enjoying the spectators that were gathering to watch. "Maybe she can teach you how to wash your hair?"

Severus turned around drawing his wand.

"Severus, no!" yelled Hermione closing the distance and placing a hand on his to lower his wand.

"You�ll be expelled. Please, just ignore them." Severus twisted his hand from hers putting his wand back up his sleeve. He was breathing very hard and his mouth was set in a thin line.

James laughed loudly. "Yes, Snivellus you don�t want to be expelled." He said in a mocking voice.

Sirius leered at Hermione. "You won�t always be around to protect him," he said pulling out his wand.

"What�s going on here?" called Slughorn, emerging from the classroom. James moved to open his mouth but Hermione cut him off.

"Nothing at all Professor, just on our way to class." She said politely pushing Severus up the hall and away from Potter and Black.

Once they were a safe distance away, she slowed her pace. Severus still hadn�t spoken to her and she was becoming increasingly aware of the fact.

"I apologize for last night." He said finally, though still not looking at her. "It was uncalled for and I promise it will never happen again." He was speaking so softly she could barely hear him.

"Severus?" she said gently, putting her hand on his arm to get his attention.

"Please, do not touch me." He said quickly moving his arm out from under her and stepping back out of her reach.

"Excuse me, I am late for class," he mumbled before practically racing down the hall.

Hermione stood there speechless, before throwing her hands up in the air and walking out toward Herbology.

Harry could tell by the way that Hermione was walking toward the greenhouse that she was in a terrible temper. Her hair was flailing behind her as if caught in a windstorm, her posture rigid and unyielding. Everything about her, exuded anger, and Harry silently pleaded it wasn�t he who she was mad at.

"Hermione?" He asked tentatively as she came near enough to hear him.

"The whole lot of them can just get themselves expelled then," she practically hissed.

"Who?" asked Harry putting a stool in between them for good measure.

"I don�t need this aggravation, it�s bad enough, with all I�ve got on my own plate. If he doesn�t want my help then he won�t get it," she snarled, pulling on her dragon hide gloves violently. "Don�t touch me, indeed."

Harry watched her bemusedly, "Are you going to explain any of this to me?" he asked pulling on his own gloves and goggles to begin with the lesson.

She looked up at him blinking rapidly, "Harry?" she asked shaking her head, realizing for the first time that he was standing there. She sighed loudly and seemed to shrink. "I hate this," she said, waiving her arm around her, "this control over things that might happen if I say or do something I shouldn�t. It just takes so much energy to keep things in line, and on top of it all I think I�ve thoroughly offended Severus."

Harry made a face at the name. "I doubt it�s as bad as you�re letting on."

Hermione gave him a look of utter honesty. "It�s bad, trust me."

"Well, what happened?"

Hermione snorted, "What didn�t happen would be more fitting."

Harry raised his eyebrows.

"It�s not like that. Well, not like your making it out to be, at least." She sighed.

"It�s just that he was angry for my outburst in Dumbledore�s office on Saturday. I came in and he was waiting for me in the Common Room, and, oh Harry, he was so upset. I told him I was sorry and somehow we started talking about his mother and then," she blushed slightly here and Harry�s mouth fell open. "No, I already said it wasn�t like that. It�s just, I don�t think anyone has really ever talked to him, as a person I mean, and I think it caught him off guard. Needless to say, he left rather quickly, and then today." She pushed a hair out of her face. "Sirius and James are always so terrible to him and you heard the Headmaster if he�s caught fighting again he�ll be expelled. Trust me, the last thing he needs, is to be left with a father that doesn�t care for him." She looked at Harry hoping to see him agree but he was watching her as if she had been speaking a different language. "I just wanted to help, you know I hate to see people treated unfairly. I don�t know what to do anymore. What if I say something that completely disrupts his future and cause all�"

Harry cut her off here finally getting an understanding of what she was on about. "I�ve been thinking about that actually. You remember how we were talking about Dumbledore already knowing certain things because we�ve already told him?" he said quietly so the other students couldn�t hear him.

She nodded, "Yes, but.."

"No listen first, my point is, maybe you�re making this more difficult than it needs to be. Maybe the reason things happened the way they did in our time is because we made them happen here."

Hermione looked at him questioningly. "I don�t understand."

"It�s like this, we�re here to live in the past because well, we already have lived in the past. That our time here is the reason why things happened the way they did in the future. " She still looked sceptical. "I�m just saying you�re putting to much blame on yourself. Things are going to happen the way they�re suppose to happen and there�s nothing more to it than that."

"So it doesn�t matter what we do, because it�s already been done?" she asked looking at him as if he had gone mad.

"Exactly," he said but continued when he noticed she was going to start in on him not mucking up anything by saying something to his mum and dad, "and I�m not saying we couldn�t do terrible damage if we wanted to, or that we should start running around telling people what�s going to happen. I just think you need to let things happen and not worry about interfering." He smiled.

She opened her mouth stopped and said, "No, it�s just going to keep going into circles if I try to think about it."

Harry laughed. Silence fell between them before Harry said gently. "It�s all right if you want to be friends with Snape. I think he could use one."

Hermione smiled at him. "That�s neither here nor there, since he won�t even look at me at the moment."

Harry nodded. "He has a lot of pride. I think that�s what is making it so hard for him when dealing with you. You do have the tendency to make people a bit nervous."

She looked at him sharply.

"And it doesn�t help that you�ve got a terrible temper." He said, pointing a cactus root at her.

Hermione glared at him. "I haven�t got a temper," she said very quietly.

Harry laughed as they continued to work at removing the spikes from the cactus.

After the end of class, Harry and Hermione walked toward the Great Hall for lunch chatting pleasantly about their classes and other mundane things, when a third year came up to them holding a scroll in one of her hands.

"I�m supposed to give this to you," she whispered handing the paper to Harry before turning around and hurrying into the Hall.

"It�s from Dumbledore," said Harry. " He wants you to come as well, tonight." He looked at her startled.

"Why wouldn�t he want me to come?" she asked angrily.

A shiver seemed to pass over Harry. "I thought it would have been like last time. You know, just him and me."

She softened a bit imagining what it must be like to relive, possibly, the worst night of your life.

"It�s all right, Harry, nothing is going to go wrong. We know it isn�t. Dumbledore stays alive and well for sometime."

Harry nodded, stowing the missive away in his robes.

"Right, what happens, happens." He smiled. " See you tonight." He called while heading toward the Gryffindor table.
- 11
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This Is The Way The World Ends.