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Wake of War	By : sshgdifferentfan Category: Harry Potter > Het - Male/Female > Snape/Hermione Views: 4060 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor any of the characters from the books or movies. The characters and canon situations in the following story belong solely to JK Rowling. I am not making any money from publishing it.

Chapter List
- 8
- 9
9. An Agreement With Professor Snape

Apprenticeship Agreement

This Apprenticeship Agreement has been drafted between Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, represented by Professor Minerva McGonagall, mentioned throughout the Agreement as “Employer”, Professor Severus Snape, mentioned as “Potions Master” or “Master” and Hermione Jean Granger, from here on mentioned as “Apprentice”.

1. Description of Apprenticeship

The Apprentice seeks an on-site training and mentoring program with the Potions Master to gain valuable creative development and hands-on learning about the art of Potions Making. Specifically, the Apprentice will receive:

She read on, hardly believing and barley understanding, until she reached the end of the scroll and the section reserved for signatures and was about to go back to the top to start reading it all over again, when she noticed that two of the three slots were already named, dated and signed; one by Headmistress McGonagall as the school’s representative and one by Professor Snape, who, Hermione noticed as she lifted her eyes for the first time in minutes, was sipping from a steaming cup of coffee completely ignoring her. She lowered her eyes to the scroll again, but had time to re-read only the first line, before Professor Snape’s throat clearing forced her eyes to meet his.

“I…” she started to say but chocked and had to start all over again, “What’s this?”

“I would think that’s obvious.” he drawled and took another sip of his coffee still not looking at her, “I for one, found the first two words quite enlightening on that matter.”

“Yes, but…” she stopped, lowered her eyes to the scroll looking for a particular paragraph and as she found it started reading it out loud. “In return for the on-site training and mentoring, the Apprentice agrees to: Arrive on time and be willing to work during the hours outlined; Adhere to the dress code set forth by the Potions Master; Conduct duties based on the Master’s moral and professional code; Act responsibly and with appropriate care around potions, potions ingredients and potions making equipment; Accept constructive instruction and guidance/advice from the Master in any form it may come; Tutor, teach or advise students…” she trailed off as she lifted her eyes from the parchment and noticed the annoyed look the professor was shooting her way.

“Miss Granger,” he almost growled as soon as her voice died down, “do I strike you as a man who would sign anything without reading it first?”

“No,” she squeaked and for a second she thought she’d seen an amused twitch on her Professor’s lips, but it was either happening only in her imagination or gone before it even started, because the scowl was back in place as if it had never left.

“Then, why do you feel the need to read me something I already know?” Hermione made to answer but the professor continued speaking without giving her a chance to do so. “Is this your obsessive need to quote the book or is there a question in there somewhere?”

“What is this?” she asked again, starting to nervously bite on her lower lip and looking anywhere but at the professor. She knew she sounded dumb, but the truth was she keep waiting for somebody to pop from under the desk and scream something like ‘April Fool’s Day’ or ‘Candid Camera’ or anything that would let her know that this wasn’t really happening, because it wasn’t. She was sure of that -- this wasn’t happening, Professor Snape wasn’t offering her an Apprentice and everything form the scroll, to his kind of serene -- if a scowl could be serene -- gaze were simply a dream and she couldn’t get her hopes up only to get them crushed by the time she’ll wake.

“Very well,” the professor sighed setting the cup down and leaning back on his chair all the while rubbing the tension from his forehead. He stood there in complete silence for what seemed like hours to Hermione when actually it had been close to a minute, before he opened his eyes and staring at the ceiling he started explaining.

***

“So,” Hermione dragged the word as much as she could when the professor finally finished explaining the parchment she still had clutched in her hands, still much too terrified to let it out of her grip, “you wish me to apprentice under you?” Almost as an afterthought she added a hasted “Sir?”, though why she bothered as this was without a doubt a dream, she didn’t know.

“I wish nothing of the sort, Miss Granger.”

This sounds more like reality, she thought as the professor went on saying: “The Ministry demands that all Hogwarts professors take Apprentices starting this year, the Headmistress suggested your name and seeing as I am obligated to fulfil the Ministry requirement…”he let the idea unfinished and Hermione’s mind was suddenly bombarded with questions she needed to ask. Yet not knowing how many he was willing to answer -- he was generally willing to answer none, especially when those questions came from her -- she decided on the most important one.

“Still, why me?”

“Because you were recommended by the Headmistress herself and you are adequate at potions or maybe because you have some sort of flair for innovation required in potion making and you are in possession of an above average mind -- is this what you want to hear - praises?”

“I…” she took a deep breath and tried again in a barely there voice. “I’d like to hear the truth.”

The professor got out of his chair and made his way around it. Hermione turned to watch his walk towards the now cold and grey fireplace and his hands rubbing his forehead as if trying to rub away a headache she was more than surely causing him. He was again silent, a concentrated expression upon his face, before turning his body fully towards her and regarding her with expressionless eyes.

“They are all valid, Miss Granger, and the truth of the matter is I have no idea which one made me decide,” the professor paused for a breath before continuing as he walked back to his chair. “You will not be the only one to receive such an offer so no need to flatter yourself with that notion. There will be a total of four Apprenticeship Agreements offered to seventh years students by each teacher and by the time of your graduation only two of the four will be receiving an Apprenticeship Contract for the next two years of training.”

“Who…” Hermione started to ask, but shied and left the question unfinished hanging between her and the professor. He was more likely to eviscerate her for asking than answer the question.

Me and my big mouth!

But the professor did nothing of the sort and furthermore surprised her with an answer. “Draco Malfoy, Stephen Cornfoot and Miranda Radford - they have yet to receive the Apprenticeship Agreement and I would prefer if you don’t go shouting it through the halls.”

“Of course, sir!”

“Very well, then you’ll have until the end of the day to decide and sign the Agreement or the Apprentice position will be revoked…”

Is he mad? I’m not throwing away a chance like this, Hermione though as the professor started to explain. She was a little put out about the whole Malfoy thing -- it seemed no matter what she did, she couldn’t get away from the blonde bastard -- but still, an Apprentice with Professor Snape outshined any negatives there might exist. She just needed to get over her libido and start using her head more when it came to the arrogant prick. And then there were the tutoring sessions she would be required to organize as an Apprentice - she now understood why the professor sent Cordelia Broadmoor to her and suspected that Malfoy, Cornfoot and Radford would be getting their very own Broadmoors soon enough if they hadn’t gotten them yet.

The professor seemed to have more to say, but stopped speaking when Hermione summoned a self-ink quill out of her bag and signed. As she finished up the signature all the blank spaces stared filling themselves with her personal information and before she even got the chance to lift the quill of the parchment it glowed green, red and then green again, before changing its colour to blue.

“In this case, Miss Granger” said the professor and Hermione looked up just as three more identical parchments -- except for the colour ink it was written in: one was red and the other two green -- materialised next to the first, “you are scheduled for your first meeting tomorrow evening at seven.”

“Yes, sir!” she beamed and the professor gathered the original parchment and two of the copies, leaving one of the parchments written in green ink in front of her.

“This is your copy,” he said when Hermione made to rise from the chair and then added: “Good day, Miss Granger!”
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