It's hard, Hermione thinks, to have everything you knew about a person written down, then scribbled out, ripped up, and then rewritten. When you're told that you've been wrong about absolutely everything regarding a person and you're forced to re-think your opinions.
Even she couldn't have predicted the direction her opinion took when she was forced to rethink her opinion on Professor Snape.
She doesn't know how Harry and Ron do it; still hate Professor Snape as though last year had never happened. As though they'd never found out that Snape had been on their side all along, and that he'd sacrificed everything to protect Harry, and that he'd almost died obeying Dumbledore, only to be saved at the last minute by Fawkes, come do his masters bidding one last time.
She still finds it hard to believe that for all those years he'd played the part of a horrible Professor when he was really fighting Voldemort with every breath he took.
Well, she thinks, as he issues Neville a detention for knocking over a cauldron, maybe it wasn't totally an act.
But it's still a far cry from who he truly is.
She's not too sure she likes the direction her opinion is taking.
"Professor, I was hoping you could explain to me how wolfsbane actually helps keep a werewolf from transforming?" Hermione asked nervously. "Isn't it usually poisonous to werewolves?"
Snape surveys her over the cauldron sitting on his desk. "That is not in the syllabus, Miss Granger. You do not need to know it to pass."
Hermione ignores the way her heart flutters at the sound of his voice. "But knowledge is important-"
"Knowledge fills your head up with useless clutter that will distract you in your exams," Snape says in a bored tone. "That's why I do not encourage my students to overreach themselves. Now, if there's nothing else, please get out of my classroom."
"But Professor-"
"You are dismissed, Miss Granger," Snape says coolly.
His tone brooks no argument. Hermione leaves.
"So you and Ron aren't getting back together then?" Harry asks her over breakfast one morning. It's a Saturday; Ron is still safely in bed.
"No," Hermione says shortly.
"But I thought…" Harry trails off.
Hermione's expression softens. "I loved Ron, Harry," she says. "I really did. But a lot of that love was born out of passion, out of the heat of the moment, and out of the fear that, for us, tomorrow might not come. That's not the path to building a stable relationship."
"And a crush on a teacher is?" Harry asks accusingly.
Hermione is so startled by his question that she forgets to deny it. "How did you know?" she asks, before clapping her hands over her mouth.
Harry smirks. "Intuition," he says.
Hermione looks sceptical at this. "You couldn't see an emotion if it was flying in front of you disguised as a snitch," she accuses shrewdly. "How did you guess about… about that."
Harry's grin fades. "Ginny told me," he admits. Then he turns serious. "Honestly, Hermione, him?"
Hermione flushes, but her expression is stubborn. "I don't know why you still hate him so," she tells Harry self-righteously.
"He's a greasy git!"
"He's saved all our lives! Multiple times, in case you're forgetting!"
"That doesn't stop him being a git!"
Hermione stands from the table. "I don't expect you to understand," she tells Harry softly, swinging her bag over her shoulder. "But it's none of your business."
Harry grabs her wrist before she can leave. "It is my business," he insists. "You're my friend."
"Well, how I feel isn't important," Hermione replies fiercely. "Because I'm not stupid enough to act on them."
She honestly means every word she says to Harry. She'd never pursue a relationship like that.
This is why she's taken by surprise when she finds herself pressed up against a wall with thin lips pressing against hers and Professor Snape's hand down her knickers.