Adult-FanFiction.org : Harry Potter

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.

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Chapter Eight

Hermione flopped down onto her stool in frustration, this was her third attempt and her potion still hadn’t worked...she followed the instructions exactly. She waited for her temper to fade slightly before crossing the room to Professor Snape’s desk where he sat marking.

“Sir?” she asked. He raised his head and waited for her to continue speaking. “I need your help. This is the third time I’ve tried to brew this potion and I really can’t spot what I’m doing wrong.”

“Very well.” He nodded standing and following her back to her desk to inspect her potion. “It appears to be stuck around...here.” He pointed to a section in the book and she frowned.

“But I did all the steps after that, each time. I really can’t spot what I’m doing wrong.” She frowned.

“And you definitely added the peppermint leaves?” he asked, she felt her anger spike at his condescending tone but didn’t let it show.

“Yes, definitely.” She replied.

“Start over.” He announced. She looked at him in disbelief and was about to complain before he cut her off. “I will watch you and stop you when I spot the mistake.” Hermione agreed and cleared up the attempted potion ready to start again. It was a bit nerve-wracking brewing with the dark wizard watching her every move for a solid hour but as she neared the final steps he stopped her.

“Did I do something wrong?” she asked, looking up at him. Instead of him looking annoyed like he usually did he actually looked confused.

“The potion should have changed colour to a lighter lilac colour by now.” He frowned. “And this has been the same with every attempt?” She nodded. “Something is wrong but it’s not something you’re doing in the brewing process...” Hermione was surprised by this and somewhat relieved. She watched as her Professor started inspecting the ingredients closely.

“You think one of the ingredients could be off?” she asked.

“I considered that but they all definitely seem fine.” He replied. “Move.” She looked a little startled as he practically shoved her away from her work station and began to set up the ingredients again. He said nothing else leaving her just stood watching him brew the potion. Her feet began to ache as she stood in silence just watching him and so she took a seat at the desk next to hers and continued to watch, she had to admit it wasn’t as boring watching him as she had first thought that it would be...it was actually incredible to watch Snape looking so calm and relaxed as he worked. An hour passed and he said nothing at the point where he had stopped her before and continued to brew for the last twenty minutes before stepping back.

“It’s not the ingredients.” He said.

“Yours worked...” she stated, standing and seeing for herself that his potion appeared as it should.

“It’s not something you’re doing...I think it may be you.” He told her. “Do you definitely have your wand on your person?” Hermione tugged her wand out from her sleeve and showed it to him “Very perplexing, my guess would be that it is something to do with your magic and often if the one brewing is young and doesn’t have their wand on their person their magic isn’t strong enough to create the potion, however you brewed the Felix Felicis last week without a problem which leads me to believe that it isn’t necessarily a power level issue.”

“So why can’t I brew the Mater Optans?” she sighed, dropping back down onto the stool in defeat. Out of the corner of her eye she noticed the wizard freeze and turn to face her consideringly. She looked up at him and noticed that he looked a little uncomfortable.

“Miss Granger, I don’t suppose that there is a chance that you may not have engaged in inter-”

“Oh my God, please do not finish that sentence!” Hermione exclaimed in horror, she felt her face heating up and immediately looked at her feet. “No I haven’t. Does that make a difference?”

“I believe so, after all why would an innocent witch require a fertility potion? Traditionally Mater Optans used to be brewed by a young bride and her mother or mother-in-law if conception had not occurred by the first year anniversary of the marriage, although granted now most women just purchase a readily brewed form nowadays. I hadn’t actually considered it until now to be a potential problem as none of the potions on the Hogwarts syllabus have that requirement and there are only very few Potion’s Mistresses. I will need to write to another Master to check that my theory is correct and find out if there is a way around it.” He told her. “You may clean your station and be dismissed for the day; if that is the problem then trying over and over will do neither you nor my potions stores any good.”

“Sorry, sir.” She said quietly.

“For not lowering yourself to the fumbling in darkened alcoves with the rest of your dunderhead classmates, I hardly think that I can fault you on that.” He smirked. “However perhaps next time you could put your Gryfindor pride aside and ask for assistance a little sooner, rather than making the same mistake three times first?”

“Sorry, I just wanted to be sure. I didn’t exactly want to give you an excuse to call me an idiot did I?” she replied.

“Quite.” He murmured. “Off with you Miss Granger, enjoy a little extra weekend time.”

Hermione said her thanks and quickly left for her rooms to change. She decided to track down Ginny and tell her about her embarrassing discovery. She pulled out a clean change of clothes, opting for her muggle jeans. As she tugged them on and fastened the button she watched herself in the mirror, it wasn’t as if she hadn’t had any offers – after all Gideon obviously seemed to fancy something about her...although she was a bit more cautious about meeting people nowadays since they could just fancy the spotlight that followed her just as it did the other members of the trio. She shook her head, Gideon wasn’t like that. She pulled a long sleeved top over her head and smoothed it down, she prodded at her stomach; the past couple of years had taken their toll on her body and she now had a nice flat stomach...the downside was that her breasts had all shrunk leaving her feeling a little boyish. She had never been one to worry overly about her appearance but she was still a witch and every witch wanted to feel attractive every now and then.

Her only actual relationship had been with Ron, which had barely gotten off of the ground before it became clear that they wanted different things and it wouldn’t work. So Hermione hadn’t gotten around to anything more than a good snogging session that involved the beginnings of a good grope. She had shared a few more innocent kisses with Victor back in fourth year but they had merely become friends after that. Maybe she should give Gideon a chance...get this virginity thing out of the way so that she could get on with her apprenticeship, and after all Gideon was definitely the type of wizard that she was looking for.

She frowned at the thought of sleeping with him...he was good looking so why did sleeping with him seem so wrong to her?

She made her way up to the Gryfindor tower to search out Ginny; the Fat Lady was nice enough to grant her entrance even though she was technically no longer affiliated with any house. She entered the common room to the sight of Ginny Weasley flinging a chess set from the table and shouting at Ron.

“Why? Why do you insist on making people play you when you always win anyway?” She demanded. “It’s a waste of my time!”

“Well it’s not exactly my fault that I’m the best at it is it?” Ron protested.

“Good afternoon.” Hermione smiled, joining them in the corner. “I’ll play you in a bit Ron; you know that I can sometimes beat you...even if I’m not overly fond of Wizard’s Chess. I just need to speak to Ginny about something first, privately.”

Ginny led Hermione up to the girl’s dormitory and they sat on her bed and Ginny looked at her expectantly.

“Well?”

“I just had the most embarrassing potions session ever.” She replied. “Long story short, I can’t brew a certain potion because I’m a virgin.”

“What? That’s definitely the reason?” the red head asked. “And in front of Snape?”

“Now you know why it was embarrassing, we couldn’t figure out why it wouldn’t work when I brewed it but did when he did it...he actually had to ask me? Can you imagine it Gin?! I had to actually admit to being a virgin in front of a Hogwart’s Professor!” Hermione dropped her head into her hands in embarrassment. “I literally wanted the ground to swallow me whole!”

“You could just use this as a bit more motivation with Professor Gilwing.” The younger witch grinned. Then her face turned to one of horror. “Oh Merlin no! That means you have actual proof that Professor Snape has actually had sex at least once in his life!”

“Oh God...I hadn’t thought about that.” She nodded. “Definitely an embarrassing moment for both of us to have to even think about the word sex in the same room.”

“I wonder who it was...” Ginny mused.

“Why?” Hermione asked in complete shock. “Why would you want to know that? What difference does it make?”

“Just curious, I’ve never seen him with a woman nor heard anything about him with a woman besides...” Ginny trailed off.

“Harry told you?” Hermione asked.

“He told me everything, after the war when he had a bit of a breakdown...he told me not to tell anyone because Snape wouldn’t want anyone knowing. The only other people that even had a hint of the information were members of the ministry in charge of his case, Harry and Kingsley pulled some strings to keep everyone quiet.” Ginny explained. “I didn’t know he’d told you.”

“He didn’t...but when he was dying he mentioned Harry’s eyes.” Hermione said softly. “Something about the way he said it just sounded like he cared a lot about her, we knew from Harry’s occulmency lessons that he went to school with them all. I kind of pieced it all together myself; especially when Harry simply said he had joined the order as a spy for someone else’s sake, that everything he did he did it because he loved someone. It would have been tragic if he had died, he spent our entire lifetime being miserable...playing a part. He never would have had a chance to be happy for himself.” Hermione’s voice wavered as she spoke.

“Hey, ‘Mione what’s wrong?” the younger witch asked, reaching an arm around her friend as a slight sob escaped.

“He was dying Gin...I know that there were other people lost in the war but I didn’t have to watch them actually being attacked while hiding unable to help, watch them dying...when he was trying to talk to Harry it was like the last thing he wanted to see before he died was Lilly Potter’s eyes.” She cried.

“But you saved him Hermione.” Ginny insisted, pulling back and staring straight into her face. “He didn’t die; you gave him a second chance.”

“Ginny I didn’t do much, I didn’t save him – I just delayed his death long enough to get him to a properly trained medi-witch.” She replied wiping her eyes. “Sorry about that, sometimes the memories just get a bit much.”

“No need to explain, I have off days too.” Ginny smiled. “Wanna go beat Ron’s sorry arse at wizard’s chess?” The girls both laughed and made their way back down to the common room. Hermione felt a like a small weight had been lifted off of her shoulders, she had days like this every now and then; days when she all of a sudden a memory would force its way to the front of her mind and she would be overwhelmed by emotions. Once she let them out a little bit she would feel a sort of relief for a little while.

At the end of the day the fallen weren’t the only victims of the war that took place nearly a year ago...although of course Hermione was grateful to still be here - everyone who had taken part and even people who hadn’t had been affected in some way, but they still had to get up every morning and get on with their lives...living with the burden of knowing that it was little more than chance that allowed them to continue living rather than their fallen friends, family...

They were the walking wounded with scars both physical and mental...and not even the shiniest medal would cover the marks that would remain for the rest of their lives.

Author’s Notes: I know what a downer to end on! Sorry! Also I forgot to mention if anyone has any suggestions on HP fics especially HG/SS pairings for me to read then please mention them in either review or pm. I’d love to read them! And don’t forget to look up my facebook group if you want to keep up to date with what it happening with my stories and when and any extras like banners, videos etc. I’m pretty sure I’m the only Astarte Lydianna on facebook so you should find me no problem!
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All My Agony Fades Away