Hello readers! I've decided to start a new fic, with my favourite couple. This first chapter is a little fluffy, but I promise there will be much more in further chapters. Reviews are appreciated, and anything you'd like to see in the future! Much love, enjoy.
How lonely, he felt. Sitting his library, with a glass of fire whiskey in his hand, Severus Snape lingered still on the nostalgia that ached in his very bones. Still his mind constantly went back to his youth, to the days when waking up every day meant seeing Lily. It was sad, he thought, that at this age he still hadn't been able to have a serious relationship. Right now his life was filled with meaningless shags, filling the void inside him with all the women who were suddenly attracted to him because of his title of 'war hero.'
The school year was about to begin. The war had ended, The Dark Lord had fallen and suddenly Severus found himself rather bored. He almost, almost, anticipated returning to Hogwarts again, just for the sake of having something to do. For so long now his life had been consumed with obeying the whims of Dumbledore, and Voldemort, that he never could even dream of time to himself. And now, that he was filled with it, he wished there was still a war going on to preoccupy him.
He had been spending his free time working on developing a potion to substitute chemotherapy treatments. If successful, the drinker would be able to consume the potion, having it treat the cancer, without all of the awful side effects. Since Severus decided that there was no cure for cancer, this would be the best way to spend his time. After a while the work became so enthralling and complicated, he had attempted to hire an apprentice to aid him. However, much to his dismay, he was not able to find someone who was not a complete dunderhead. Since his last unsuccessful encounter with Lenny, the 24 year old aspiring Potions master with shit for brains, Severus had abandoned the project. Now, he spends his summers drinking himself into oblivion, fulfilling his manly needs, and then sending the poor women away in the morning.
But soon, the school year would start, and Severus would have something to do. He could forget about his loneliness, and his never ending grief of his only love.
"Oh Harry please come back with me! I'll be so lonely and you could really use some brushing up on your magical knowledge. Doing your N.E.W.T.'s will benefit you!" Hermione pleaded with her best friend.
"Hermione don't be dramatic. You'll have Ginny and Luna there. Why would I voluntarily return to school if I don't have to?" Harry droned for the millionth time, slamming his head on the kitchen table of 12 Grimmauld Place. Hermione snorted. "Fine. Be uneducated all you like."
She picked at her scrambled eggs, one fist holding her face up. She had a scowl on her face and was impossibly annoyed at the fact that Harry would not finish school. Even though she was an adult now, and would be granted total exemption from her exams, Hermione was not one to pass up an educational opportunity. Or an opportunity to escape her current home at Grimmauld Place, where soon it would also be the home to her one time friend, Ronald Weasley. Oh she couldn't even imagine facing the sulky red head. After the war, everyone was so caught up in being in love that yes, Hermione did kiss Ron, but as soon as the excitement died down she immediately realized he was not the match for her, and was faced with breaking his heart. Ron fled to Romania to work with his brother, training dragons, he was so embarrassed. Soon, he would be returning home for 6 months to live with Harry in Grimmauld Place, which is where she happened to also live. Thank Goodness though, Hermione would be on the Hogwarts Express before Ron even stepped foot back in England.
She rose from the table and brought her plate to the sink, where she charmed it to wash up for her. Then she planted a kiss on Harry's head, which was face down on the kitchen table. Hermione had made him get up early to pester him about going to school with her, and now he apparently had passed out. She sighed, grabbed her trunk from the corner of the kitchen, her purse from the chair, and wheeled her way out of the house.
Two Weeks Later
Hermione's eyes shot open, and immediately noticed the amount of light that was flooding in her room. Christ, what time was it? She glanced at her clock: 9:30. Shit! Hermione practically flew out of bed and ran to her bathroom. There would be no time for a shower this morning, or anything related to her importance. She threw on her nearest cloaks, (which were probably worn yesterday as they were on the floor,) tied her hair up in a bun, missing strands however, resulting in a lot of it falling in her face. She slipped on her shoes, grabbed her books, and ran as fast as she could out of the common room, down the hall, and toward the Dungeons.
She slammed through the doors, panting heavily. "I-I'm here, Professor! I'm so sorry! I must have overslept. I mean, well, I did, but it won't happen again!" Hermione stumbled on her way to her desk, knocking over several other students' ingredients on her way.
"Ms. Granger, not only are you forty seven minutes late for my class, you have the audacity to gallop on in here and disrupt it? 50 points from Gryffindor, and a detention at 7'oclock IN my office! Sit down and do try not to break anything in the process." Snape spat at the Gryffindor girl. Hermione frowned. At least it was a double potions, and she still had another hour to try and complete the assigned potion. Shit. What was the assigned potion? Oh blast she was going to have to disrupt the silence of the classroom to ask what the bloody potion was.
She turned around and went "psst" to the Gryffindor girl sitting behind her. The girl looked up from her cauldron and gave Hermione a pleading look, almost as if to say not to make her try and communicate under Snape's watch. Hermione stretched a little further and tried to see what was in the girl's cauldron, but she tilted her chair so much she caused it to fall completely over, hitting the desk behind her and sending the innocent girl's potion to the floor, spattering everywhere, and causing little green sprouts to shoot from the floor. The sprouts kept growing, and eventually full grown trees started to appear in the dark, musty classroom.
Snape's face was livid, and Hermione had never seen the man have so much colour. "HERMIONE GRANGER, GET OUT OF MY CLASSROOM. DOUBLE DETENTION. 7. O. CLOCK." Hermione did not hesitate, and tiptoed carefully from the room.
At dinner, Hermione recounted her disastrous morning to Ginny and Luna. Both the girls were in stitches. "Stop laughing! I completely embarrassed myself in front of everyone and I'm pretty sure Snape is going to take all of Gryffindor's points because of me."
"Hermione, I'm sorry but that story is bloody hilarious. You wait till Harry hears about this. Oh my god." Ginny snorted, erupting in more laughter, tears welling in her eyes.
"Well maybe you could bake Professor Snape some snicker doodles to try and ease his anger? That always works when people are annoyed with me," chimed Luna.
Hermione was in so deep she seriously considered Luna's weird suggestion. She buried her face in the table, and groaned. "Hey look, at least you weren't naked. Things are always worse when you're naked." Ginny said. Hermione laughed and tried to forget about how embarrassed she was, and excused herself from dinner early so she could at least shower before her detention with the bat- like potions professor.
After she was through and dressed, in comfy sweater and jeans, she pinned her hair up in a cute bun and grabbed her bag. Off to endure a scolding from Professor Snape. She arrived at his office and knocked gingerly on the door. "Come in Ms. Granger," he said coldly. She opened the door and walked toward his desk, and when she opened her mouth to flood her apologies, he interrupted her. "Save it, please. I do not want to hear how sorry you are, how much of an accident it was, or how it'll never happen again. You behaved like a complete baboon in front of my class today. I won't have a grown woman exhibiting that kind of behaviour in front of students much younger than her, and I most certainly will not have you destroying my materials and classroom."
Hermione just nodded, and awaited further instruction. "Tonight you will be cleaning beakers and cauldrons, and if you finish before your two hours is up you can separate the crickets from the grasshoppers in the new batch." He handed her a rag and some gloves, and some cleaning mixtures. "No magic."
The young witch cursed under her breath as she turned around and made her way to the table of dirty beakers and cauldrons in the corner of the room. She got to work, and started humming songs to try and pass the time faster. "Ms. Granger, do shut up."
That slimy git is so god-awful unpleasant, she thought to herself.
Hermione got bored with cleaning and her eyes scanned her surroundings. On the table next to hers, she noticed a stack of paper. On the nearest one she saw a bunch of writings, many words scratched out. They looked like potion instructions. She squinted her eyes and attempted to read which potion it was for. She read the title, Chemo substitution potion. God that sounded awfully familiar. Hermione racked her brain to try and remember where she'd heard that before. Not, heard…read… wait!
"This was you?" Hermione put down her beaker and reached for the paper. She held it up and turned to her Professor before she realized the manner in which she had just addressed him. He looked up from his marking and scowled. "What?"
"This was you! This potion is to substitute chemotherapy treatments in cancer patients! I read it in a potions paper this summer, apparently the person trying to accomplish it went into hiatus and stopped putting out updates. It was you. Why did you give up?"
Snape deemed Hermione's outburst unimportant and looked back at his marking. "Ms. Granger, it is none of your business why I ceased work on the potion, now I suggest you return to your detention before you add another two hours."
Hermione frowned at Snape, and walked over to his desk, the paper still in her hand. "You realize this could help a lot of people. I don't think you should give up. I could help you."
"I don't know why you think that being an insufferable know-it-all is going to help your case! Whether you're a grown witch or not, you are still a student at this school and you will stop harassing me and continue your detention before you're in this office for the foreseeable future!" Snape hissed at her, "and besides, I don't need help."
Hermione put her hands on her hips and regarded her Professor like a child. "Yes you most certainly do, it stated in the article that you stopped because you couldn't find a capable assistant. I'm more than capable! I've been dreaming about working on this kind of thing! Please sir, let me help you. It could count as my detention. And I promise I won't knock anything over, or get in the way, I just want to help. I'm not going to let you throw something like this away."
Snape looked at the stubborn witch in front of him. She certainly had balls talking like this to him. He had been considering looking for an assistant again, to give him something to do over the Christmas break. But, a student? And not just a student, the annoying, disastrous Granger. Although however clumsy she may be, she still had very outstanding potions abilities, whether he would admit it or not. Perhaps she was up to the task?
"You would need to stay here over the Christmas Break to work." He said simply.
"That's fine. I'd rather not go home anyway." She replied, ready for the next thing he could shoot at her.
"You would need to come here every night after dinner. I don't slack off on projects.
"Fine," she said, shrugging her shoulders, "I don't do much else anyway."
Snape pursed his lips and the two stared at each other, Hermione ready for his next attack, and Snape trying to come up with it. He saw no reason why the Granger girl couldn't help him, however annoying she may be. "This in no way makes us equals. You are still a student and you will obey my wishes. I won't have you gallivanting in here like a loose cannon, either. You're to wear your robes, and your hair must be tied back and out of the way."
Hermione jumped and squealed at his obvious submission, and beamed at him. "Thank you sir, I promise you that you will not regret this. Oh this is going to be so much fun!" Hermione bounded back to her detention, whistling, and cheerfully polishing.
"That is exactly the kind of annoying thing I do not want Granger. No fun having. And no bloody whistling!"