And I'm back!
I haven't written anything in so long and I am so very sorry.
This particular stor is being writted in the middle of the night and won't be my best work, but it's a quick fix to help me get back into the swing of things.
I hope it is readable enough and that you enjoy it.
Thursday always meant double potions, which in turn meant that the sixth year Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs would be brewing a less than easy potion. As the bell rang to signal the end of Charms, Hermione hurried down to the dungeons. She always arrived before everyone else which gave her the choice of any table; even though she had sat at the same one her entire schooling life. Placing her bag under the table, Hermione didn't bother getting out a quill and parchment for she knew that they would be brewing and instead read the instructions on the board. She went to the storage cupboards and when she returned with the needed ingredients the classroom had started to fill with students.
Setting everything up, she then waited the arrival of her ever dramatic potions master Severus Snape. As if on cue the man in black came billowing into the classroom shouting for everyone to read the board, they would be working in pairs and that they had two hours to create the potion it described. He momentarily glanced at Grangers table and was not surprised that she had already done that and was being bombarded by her fellow classmates for her partnership. He rolled his eyes before sitting behind his desk to grade papers.
He looked up to see that the resident know-it-all had signalled for Longbottom to join her. Probably to give him a passing grade; something he was in desperate need of. He knew that he could remain seated for a while before he needed to start stalking the rows of trembling students, but his gut told him that this was a potion that might cause problems. Sighing heavily, Severus stood and began slowly pacing between each row; starting from the front he watched has Granger gave simple instructions the bumbling idiot she called a lab partner. He weaved his way through each pair and glanced over certain students' shoulders just to make sure they weren't falling too far behind.
Hermione's brain raced, she had never brewed and anti-aging potion before and there were at least three times as many instructions as a normal potion. She had made sure that she stirred every two minutes counter clockwise ending with one clockwise stir while adding ingredients as she went. She had given Neville the job of slicing, dicing, and squashing the herbs and such before they went into the cauldron. He was doing a great job, but every time their professor passed by, she noticed his hand shaking. She had tried to encourage him to stay calm, but it only worked while Professor Snape was at the back of the room.
As the hour rolled by Hermione needed Neville to start adding things while she chopped; at this point the potion needed lots of things added and all of them had different things that needed to be done. So with a smile and a pat on the back, Hermione turned to light up a second cauldron to stew the belladonna, pawpaw, virgins blood and several other ingredients while Neville was left to soldier on. Severus had just started another lap, but had stared at Neville's cauldron longer than was necessary and had set the boy on edge.
As Longbottom panicked he neglected to grind the unicorn hair into a fine powder and simply dropped the clump into the boiling potion whole. Upon realising his mistake a long "uuuummm" sound escaped his lips causing Hermione to turn around. Her eyes widened and she began to undo her school robes as she watched the potion fume and boil angrily. The commotion grabbed the potion master's attention and he circled back to take away house points.
Just as he was about to shout at Neville for his carelessness three things happened: Neville panicked and hid under the neighbouring table, Hermione attempted to throw her robe of the potion to mask the fumes and the potion exploded. A thick blue cloud of smoke erupted from the cauldron as the explosion sent the Professor tumbling backward and the students evacuated the room. Regaining his footing, Severus rushed forward and tried to clear the mess away; he knew the smoke was not harmful, but the actual potion.
As he pulled out his wand he pointed it at the window sending it flying open helping air out the room, but that's when he saw her. Lying on the ground in a puddle of the volatile liquid was what he expected to be Hermione Granger only a lot smaller. Not only smaller, but younger and if her had to guess he would say around three years old. He could see the Neville boy unconscious on the floor under a table, but he otherwise seemed unharmed. He quickly vanished the potion and carefully approached the child. Her clothes were much too big for her and looked more like a patchwork blanket; the only thing cushioning her head from the cold floor was her unruly mane.
The potions master bent down and picked up the sleeping infant; she was so tiny in his hands and her thumb was stuck in her mouth as she gently sucked on it. He wrapped her clothes around her better and hung his head; Albus was going to have his head for this.
Knowing what was waiting just outside the dungeon door, Severus actually hesitated leaving, but he knew that the Headmaster needed to be informed. He straightened his posture and put the meanest scowl in place as her sent the door flying open with a bang. The pile of students waiting to see if they could return to their potions were gobsmacked to see the Professor holding a child, but none dared question him.
"Mister Finnegan, please go and wake Mister Longbottom and help him to the infirmary," Snape looked uncomfortable, "Potter, Weasley, accompany me to the Headmasters office."
He was glad that the boys had enough sense to simply nod instead of bombard him with questions; his scowl wavered only slightly when he felt the form in his arms stir awake. Big golden eyes looked up at him and he was greeted with a yawn and a smile.
"Everyone will receive 'Acceptable' for their potions." His voice was not nearly as harsh as usual and he didn't turn away from the child in his arms.
The students whispered, but again didn't voice their opinions about their Professor being crazy or where he had gotten a child from. Severus started walking up the many flights of stairs to reach Albus's office with the two concerned teens behind him. Somewhere along the trip the young Hermione had gotten it into her head that Severus was her own private jungle gym and was happily climbing all over him. To his credit, the man in question kept a calm look on his face as he allowed the child poke and prod his face, as well as tell him that his hair was pretty. Eventually she settled with looking over his shoulder at the two boys following them. She smiled and waved at them, her hand not visible behind the long sleeve school shirt. Both Harry and Ron stifled their laughter in fear of enraging their Professor, but they both admitted that his patience was amazing.
Once they reached the gargoyles and Snape spoke the password, small Hermione looked on in shock as the staircase spiralled upwards. Her wide eyes turned to Severus and he nearly smiled at her look of utter wonderment as he marched up the stairs. He knocked loudly of the wooden door before opening it and allowing the boys to go ahead of him. The door shut behind him and he stood in the Headmasters office holding the infant version of Hermione Granger. Albus had his head down as he scribbled on a piece of parchment.
"Severus my boy, and to what do I owe the pleasure?" Dumbledore didn't look up as he spoke.
"I have terrible news Headmaster." Snape's voice wavered.
"I'm sure whatever Mister Potter and Mister Weasley have done this time cannot be considered terrible." He smiled as he spoke, but still stared at the Ministry piece of paperwork.
"There was an accident sir." Weasley spoke carefully.
This grabbed the Headmasters attention and no sooner had he looked up did a quiet "oh" escape his mouth as he watched the small child in Severus' arms wave excitedly at him. He placed his quill down on his desk and stood before making his way towards his guests. His half moon spectacles shone when the light hit them as he walked across the room.
"Is this Miss Granger?" His voice sounded as shocked as Severus felt.
"Yes," Severus held her out and Dumbledore grabbed her and smiled gently at the child who played with his beard, "They were working on an anti-aging potion when her cauldron exploded. If I am correct sir, unicorn hair could be the reason."
At this the Headmaster frowned, "But Miss Granger would know better than to add too much."
"It was a paired activity." Severus grumbled as he felt the beginnings of a headache. Longbottom was a constant source of a headache for him.
Albus seemed to understand and took Hermione to sit with him at his desk, he opened the first drawer and pulled out a paper bag of assorted candy and allowed her the grab a handful. Hermione sat quietly on the elderly mans knee as she placed the candy on the desk and ate them one by one. The group watched her little habit in silence until she came to the last piece of chocolate; at that moment she jumped off of the Headmasters knee and walked right up to Severus. She held out her chubby little hand and offered the chocolate the scariest teacher in the school and to both Harry and Ron's surprise he took it and ate it. Hermione smiled and giggled all the way back to Albus who picked her up and plonked her on his desk where she happily watched all the little moving knick-knacks.
"Merlin, Severus!" Albus finally looked at the Slytherin's face, "You look about ten years younger!"
"I must have gotten some of the potion on me." Snape grumbled, but mostly because of the whole situation.
"Still, this is a very serious matter Severus," Dumbledore's voice held an air of warning to it; "An aging potion takes a long time to brew."
Severus knew that had he not brought along the child Hermione and her two friends, he would be on the receiving end of a very harsh lecture; which is why they were here. Although the Headmaster was not yelling at him, Severus felt that something bad was going to happen nonetheless.
"I understand Headmaster; a proper aging potion may take up to several months to brew."
"Why does it take so long?" The Weasley boy had remained fairly silent, but Snape still rolled his eyes.
"My dear boy," Albus smiled, "An aging potion needs to age for it to be affective and because Miss Granger is so young she will need an old potion to bring her back to normal."
"But who will look after her?" Harry looked worried, "You can't send her home…"
The room filled quickly with a heavy silence as they all remembered the night last year when they found out that Hermione's parents had been killed in a Death eater attack. She had since been living on her own in an apartment she bought after her family home was sold.
"Mum could take care of her." Ron piped up, "I reckon she would love to take care of a baby, especially a girl."
"Although I am sure that Molly would be an excellent baby sitter Mister Weasley, I had a different person in mind." Albus looked directly at Severus who suddenly felt very uneasy.
"Headmaster, I can't." He could only force those words past the lump in his throat.
"Severus, is an accident in a Professor's classroom solely their responsibility?"
"Yes, but…"
"And the responsibility, should something happen to a student that doesn't need a medical professional around at every turn, be left up to the person in charge of the student at the time of the accident."
"I don't see how that…"
"Severus," Albus' voice stopped him in his tracks, "I know what I'm saying may sound like a request, but it's not."
The room became tense; the boys had never heard their Headmaster speak that way to a staff member, let alone Snape. Oblivious to the tension in the room, the young Hermione hopped off of the tall wooden desk. She stumbled as she tried to move while wearing the button up shirt like a dress. Grabbing the extra material, Hermione ran to Severus and tried to climb up his leg; he eventually bent down and picked her up.
"Yes?" He asked, defeated.
"I'm hungry." Her big eyes seemed to widen and her bottom lip slightly pouted.
"I think you should take her to the Great Hall for lunch Severus, it's about that time." Just as the words were spoken the bell rang to signal lunch.
"But where will she sit?" Severus was trying desperately to save his dignity, but he knew it was no use.
"With you of course." Dumbledore's eye sparkled as he stood and opened the door, ushering them all out, "And Severus, do fix that shirt of hers before she trips."
As usual I hope to hear what you think. The second chapter sould already be posted, but that shouldn't stop you.
-Captain Zex