Balmung's Angel: My new fanficton, and first HP. Glad to have finally thought of a good enough story to write. lol. Well, the chapters in this are sort of short, but I still have a co-host. Well, actually, two...

Draco: Hello mudbloods. How are you, dying yet? So, do you want to hear about this story from me, or the stupid mudblood? Well, you see, in this story, I get to have some real fun with all the mudbloods and the half-bloods.

Fred: Shut up ferret. No one wants to hear your grating voice so early in the... Actually, any time of the day, so just stop talking.

Draco: Well, I never was so insulted in my whole life.

Fred: Hey, you want a piece of toffy?

Draco: 'grabs the toffy and sniffs it' Yeah, sure, alright. 'pops the toffy into his mouth and starts to turn blue. Then starts gagging' What did you do to me you bloody - Muhmuh!!!!!

Fred: Oh nothing. I just gave you a candy that causes your mouth to glue itself shut, and also it makes you turn a lovely shade of blue. 'laughs at Draco as he tried to pull his mouth open'

Balmung's Angel: Oh Fred, you're my hero! Haha. 'hugs Fred and sticks tongue out at Draco'. Um, how long will that last?

Fred: As long as you want it to my dear. 'hugs me back'

Balmung's Angel: Well, maybe I'll take it off if he behaves himself until after the chapter.

Draco: MMM MMM MMMMMMMMM! (NO BLOODY WAY MUDBLOOD)

Balmung's Angel: Let's just take that as a yes.

Fred: Brilliant idea. So, on to the first chapter.

Severus Snape sat at his desk on a Friday morning. Outside the sun was shining, the birds were chirping, and there were students walking all around the grounds. Inside, the drab interior of the dungeons was nothing in comparison. All you could see were students sitting around cauldrens working on their potions. Snape looked up from his work for a few minutes to scan the classroom for problems. His eyes roamed over the students.

'Potter and Weasley. There's no way in hell that they can complete this potion adequately enough for my standards,' he thought. He continued to stare at them, listening intently to what they said.

Harry glared down at the potion as it turned puce. "Is it supposed to be that color?" he asked Ron.

The red haired boy shrugged, and stirred the potion, as it began to bubble loudly. "I think so. Hey, Harry. Is it supposed to bubble this much?" He looked down worriedly, hoping it wouldn't explode.

His partner shrugged as well. "Maybe... Who knows... I'm not the best at potions." He glanced to the back of the room, and motioned at Hermione frantically as the potion started to bubble over.

Hermione noticed him and sighed inwardly. 'Not again...' she thought. 'I can't believe that they can't do something this easy.' She pointed to an ingredient on her friends table, and mouthed the word 'Newt's Tail', before she went back to working on the potion with Neville.

Harry added the item, and the potion immediately simmered down, and started to turn pale yellow. He glanced up at Hermione again to give her a silent thank you, but she was already back to work.

Severus shook his head, slightly amused by the proceedings. His eyes wandered over to the far back corner where Neville Longbottom and Hermione Granger sat. She was currently looking into the Healing Potion they were making. It was a bright yellow color. 'As always, perfect.' Snape thought. 'There's no way she would ever make a mistake with a potion.' He then saw her bite her lower lip in thought. It was a bad habit, but he found it cute. He looked at her face. She no longer had buck teeth, and her bushy hair that had plagued her for most of her life was now thick and smooth. He had been in love with her since her third year of school, and he could never tell her. She would think he was a perverted old man, since he was twice her age. He went back to his work, and a few minutes later, he heard her voice start yelling.

"Neville, don't add that!" she shouted. The boy she was talking to accidentally dropped the ingredient he was holding into the potion. Snape looked up from the essay he was grading when he heard an explosion. He strode over to the back of his classroom to sneer down at the problem.

"What happened?" he sneered at the two students who were now covered in the potion. Neville looked down at his feet as he was glared at. Soon, you could hear sniffling sounds from his crying. "Fine then. Miss Granger?"

Hermione stared up into the angry eyes of the potions master. She felt a pang of fear when she saw how angry he obviously was. She flinched but didn't look away. "W-well sir... Neville was monitoring the potion as I was writing down the reactions. I only looked away for a moment, but when I looked up, he was holding something over the potion. You probably heard me tell him not to put that in the potion, but I startled him and he dropped the item into the potion. I'm sorry professor."

Snape looked down at her and glared. "Well, you should be. You know how he is. It's not safe to leave him alone with a potion for more than a second. Not even that." He raised his voice at the end of his reprimand, and he saw Hermione flinch again and stare down at her feet. He immediately regretted yelling at her when he saw her face fall and he wanted to hug her and tell her how sorry he was, but he just couldn't show her any compassion. Hermione looked up at him and saw a flash of something she couldn't identify cloud his eyes. Before she could tell what the look he gave her was, it was gone, hidden behind a mask of nothingness as always.

'What was that look? It almost seemed like regret, but it had something more in it. It sort of reminded me of how Harry and Ginny look at each other.' She thought. But that wasn't possible. There was no way he could return the feelings she had for him. She had loved him since her first year at school when she found out that he had been muttering a counter curse for Professor Quirrell's curse to kill Harry. But what if he did have feelings for her? If he did, why didn't he ever show her anything besides anger and cruelty? She knew the answer to that as well. If Snape showed her anything besides hatred, then one of the death eater children would most likely report to the Voldemort that Snape was kind to a mudblood. He couldn't risk it. As she thought this, her heart leaped, with the prospect that her professor could possibly return her feelings. She cleared her throat and took a deep breath of air to try to calm her heart down.

"I know sir, and I am sorry. I probably shouldn't have looked away, but he had been doing so well, I thought it would be safe. I know that I should have been the one watching the potion instead of writing down the results. And before you ask professor, no. I did not see what ingredient Neville added to make it explode. All I saw was that it was something that didn't even belong in the potion." She looked at him with her clear chocolate eyes, hints of gold flashing through them. Snape sighed and shook his head.

"Very well. I should have been paying more attention as well. After all, we all know that Mr. Longbottom is not capable of making a potion on his own." He then turned to look at Neville who was being comforted by both Ron and Harry. "So, Mr. Longbottom, do you know what you added to the potion?" He tried to make the words come out a little kinder then normal, trying to make the boy calm down a little.

"N-n-n-n-no s-s-sir... I-I-I-I can't re-remember. I-I-I-I... sorry..." Neville then proceeded to start crying again. Ron patted him on the back and glared up at Snape.

"You git, your being unfair to him. It's not his fault. Hermione should have been watching him, so don't blame him. It's her fault." At this, Hermione turned to stare at him, shocked. Harry did the same, obviously thinking that Ron had maybe inhaled a few too many fumes from the potions. Hermione was wondering if he had completely lost his mind by calling the professor, the man she loved, a git. Especially to his face. She glanced over to Professor Snape and saw that he looked almost ready to explode. Deciding that she better do something to defuse the situation, put her hand on Snape's shoulder as he took a step toward Ron.

"Professor, don't blame Ronald. He didn't mean what he said. He just inhaled too much of the fumes. He doesn't know what he was saying. I'm sure of it. And anyway, he's right. It is my fault that I wasn't paying close enough attention. So please, if you want to punish anyone, please punish me sir." Snape looked at her dumbfounded. He felt her hand gently restraining him from getting any closer to Weasley, and even after he had almost insulted her, she still defended him. He sighed again, and pulled his arm from her grasp.

"Very well. Mr. Weasley, 10 points from Gryffindor for disrespecting a teacher, and Mr. Longbottom, 10 for blowing up a cauldren. Now, class, you are dismissed. Because of this little mishap, the potion will be finished tomorrow in class, so cast a waiting charm on your potion so nothing can happen to it until tomorrow. Also, I want an essay on my desk by Friday explaining the different ingredients that could have made this explosion occur. Mr. Longbottom, if you remember what you added, kindly tell me, so that I'll know if I need to make an antidote since if this potion, if made wrong, could cause problems. Also, Miss Granger, see me after you clean up this mess about what to do now." He walked back to his desk as his NEWT class cleared up their stations. He thought he heard Mr. Weasley mutter something under his breath, but since he couldn't be sure, he couldn't do anything. When they finished, they all left, except Hermione, who obediently walked up to the front of the classroom.

"Sir, um, I'm ready for my punishment." She stood in front of his desk, hands clasped behind her back. A strand of her hair fell in front of her eyes and she tried to blow it away unsuccessfully. After her second failed attempt, she sighed, and reached her hand up to brush the hair back to where it belonged. She looked back to Professor Snape so she could receive her punishment.

"Well, just come here after dinner for detention. 7 o'clock. Is that satisfactory for you?" He asked her, not even looking up from the paper in front of him. She nodded, but when she realized that he didn't see her, she spoke up.

"Of course sir. No problem professor." Hermione stared at her teacher. He seemed to look even more tired then normal. His obsidian eyes had light circles under them, and the lines around them seemed slightly deeper. His brow was slightly creased, as though he was worrying about something. Before she knew what she was doing, Hermione walked up behind Snape and placed her hands on his temples, massaging them. Snape raised his head and tried to turn to look at her.

"Miss Granger, what do you think you're doing?" He tried to pull away, but she held him in place.

"It's all right sir. Just relax. Please, you shouldn't be so stressed out. I won't hurt you." Hermione continued to massage his head, even after she realized what she was doing. It just felt so natural to want to try to relieve any stress from him that she could. And to him, it felt so good to have her hands up on his head. Snape wondered why she was touching him though. After all, who would want to touch the slimy-bat of a death eater that lived in the dungeons?

After a few more moments, Snape reluctantly pulled away from her hold and turned to look at her. "You should go now Miss Granger. You have homework to do before dinner. Just remember to come at 7, and as always, don't be late." Hermione, sad that he had pulled away from her, just nodded and walked over to her desk and picked up her bag. She left the dungeons, blushing deeply as she thought about what she had done. When she had shut the door, she leaned against it and let out a breadth of air she didn't know she was holding.

"Merlin, I can't believe I just did that. What will he think of me? Oh no! I hope he doesn't realize my feelings for him now! Oh, I hope not.. But it felt so good to be able to touch him like that... His hair... Just as I thought, it isn't really greasy, it's just thick and shiny." Her thoughts lingered on the feel of his skin on hers, and the feel of his hair. She unconsciously looked down at her watch, and when she saw that it already said 5:30, she fell out of her daydream. "Oh my gosh, I better hurry if I want to get dinner before I come back for my detention!" And so she ran out of the dungeons toward the Great Hall so she could get something to eat.

Little did Hermione know, Severus Snape was thinking the exact same things as her in his classroom. He worried that she now knew that he loved her, or that she was disgusted by him.

Balmung's Angel: Well, the first chapter is done. That was fun. And, even better, Draco wasn't in it yet!

Fred: Um, the trick wore off I think...

Draco: Aaaaahhhh! It feels so great to talk again... Well, I just want to say that you were very rude to do that to me Weasley, and my father will hear about this!

Balmung's Angel: Um, Draco, isn't your father in prison? I thought he was sent to Azkaban.

Fred: Yeah, ferret. My dad caught your dad and sent him away to Azkaban. Well, isn't that a nice change? The Weasley's finally got something over on the Malfoy's. Haha.

Draco: ... 'in too much shock to speak'

Balmung's Angel: Well, thank you. 'kisses Fred on the cheek' Now, let's just finish this while he can't speak.