Professor Severus Snape was close.
Everything he had worked for for the last nine months was leading up the this point.
He'd been through a lot. Nagini had nearly killed him in the final battle, but luckily he'd been slowly building his tolerance to snake venom throughout the years, and he naturally always carried a bezoar on him because he was a potions master. He was completely taken aback when he entered the partially destroyed Great Hall and got an armful of a crying Hermione Granger. "I thought you were dead." She whispered to him. Soon, though, she was gone and he was being fussed over by Madame Pomfrey.
He didn't have a trial and he was never charged with the murder of Albus Dumbledore. Luckily the manipulative old fool kept thousands of pensieve memories, which cleared Severus's name. In the court of public opinion, though, people were not so forgiving. Harry Potter had been annoyingly close to him...Severus knew he shouldn't have given the boy his memories.
But at the same time, it had been necessary.
It had taken a while to regain Minerva's trust. She was one of the few people that he had truly wanted to rebuild bridges with. She never gave up on him despite his surly attitude as a young professor and she had become somewhat of a mother figure to him. Unfortunately, one of her conditions of future friendship after the war was to reclaim his post at Hogwarts as Potions Master. She had assumed the mantle of Headmistress and insisted that he become the deputy headmaster. He had only accepted because she told him that it would be for only a while, until she could find a suitable replacement.
He didn't know that "finding a suitable replacement" meant taking on an apprentice. He, in his storied career, had never taken an apprentice, mostly just because he didn't like working with other people. He preferred the quiet.
He remembered the groan that overtook him when he discovered that the apprentice had already been chosen for him. Miss Hermione Granger. He could practically hear all of the questions that she would have for him.
When she moved in in early August before school began, he was actually pleasantly surprised by her demeanor. While they didn't share chambers, her rooms were in the dungeon and they had access to his library, office and private potions lab.
He found her much quieter than he expected. She didn't spout facts like she used to before she took her O.W.L.s. He found that she was willing to accept the changes that he suggested and deviate from the recipe. He thought that she would be such a rule-follower, but she told him that she was there to absorb his knowledge. The questions that she did pose were well-thought out and meaningful. Some took him a few days to ponder before coming to an answer.
She also didn't hang annoyingly close. Just because she was his apprentice didn't mean they were required to spend all of their time together. She respected his space and mostly spent her socializing time with Minerva and Neville Longbottom, who had, regrettably taken over the post of Herbology Professor. Neville actually wasn't as bad as he had been, but the boy was still petrified of him. Not the best thing when a Potions Master had to work closely with the Herbologist. He usually sent Hermione to retrieve ingredients.
Occasionally, they would pass the evenings together, sitting in his study, reading. He would sit in the big green arm chair closest to the fire place. She would sit on the comfy couch, still close enough to bask in the warm orange glow of the fire. Eventually she would bring her legs up to rest on the couch. Her robe would ride up showing the expanse of her shapely, stocking-clad calves.
Not that he was looking.
She would worry her lip, fully engrossed in a potions periodical. It was quite pleasant really. And on the rare occasion that she would fall asleep on the couch, he would cover her with a warm blanket and stoke the fire, so she would be warm through the night.
However, with an apprentice to take over for him, Snape had begun to think of some other forms of income. He decided to rest on his strengths and come up with an ingenious potion he could sell to the masses.
Whilst in the service of the Dark Lord, he had developed various attempts at a potion to increase the length of Voldemort's life. Unfortunately, most of the potions seemed to only make one appear younger than their age. He'd been fortunate enough to make one that reversed the aging process permanently.
He was working on making the results temporary and appear more gradually. It wouldn't do to have an eighty year old woman suddenly appear twenty. A pureblood woman would never use a product if she had to admit to using it. The temporary effects would have them coming back for more. It was quite a lucrative business plan. By his estimate, once he completed it, he would never have to work again.
So, for the last nine months he had taken the utmost care in obtain all of his ingredients to perfect the initial potion before he added the component that made the effects temporary, as well as a dampening potion. He'd spent months tracking down the ptolemy, obtaining the honeywater from a special strain of bee found in Africa, pruning his moondew plants every night.
He had been up for the past three days, barely touching the tea and sandwiches that the house elves brought him. He had been taking the wizard equivalent to a very high dose of caffeine to keep himself awake. He knew that he could just set the potion to stir by magic,but he didn't want to waste his last nine months by ruining the brew with magic.
He was so close. All he had left to do was to add in no more than three drops of liquefied haliwinkles.
Then he could tackle adding the dampening component and making the effects temporary.
He held the liquefied haliwinkle in the dropper over the simmering potion. "One." He whispered, watching the bright green drop disappear into the clear liquid. "Two." He let another drop go and watched the clear liquid absorb it. He was so nervous, he could feel the sweat beading on his brow. "Three."
In his nervousness, he trembled while administering the third drop. He watched helpless as a fourth drop followed the third and upon hitting the surface of the liquid, his potion immediately began to violently boil. The cauldron began to shake and before he had the chance to say "NO!" the cauldron exploded, leaving him and the room drenched in the clear liquid.
The force of the blast knocked him down, his head hitting the hard stone ground when he landed. And then everything went black.
Hermione was strolling down the stairs to the dungeons after dinner. It was always a little bit strange for her to head down the stairs as opposed to up, but she found that she didn't totally hate the dungeons. Her window looked until the Black Lake and she was constantly surprised by how many fish and other creatures she was able to see. Her only complaint was that it was a little bit drafty. Upon noticing she was constantly cold, though, Professor Snape made sure to keep the fires stoked and warm. It was a courtesy that she wasn't expecting.
She was beginning to get worried about Professor Snape. He hadn't been up out of the dungeons for the last three days. If it was anyone else, she would have thought him depressed, but she knew that he was just wrapped up in his potion. He was very secretive about it, as if she would try to steal his idea. That was just preposterous!
Sighing, she decided to check in his lab to see if she could bring him anything. She knew that he hadn't really been eating anything that the elves were bringing him. She pushed open the door after muttering the password. The light was on, but there didn't appear to be a Professor Snape. That was odd.
Hermione took in the whole room. Everything seemed unusually...shiny. And that's when she saw the exploded cauldron. "Oh no!" Quickly she ran over to the work station and saw a young man laying on the floor. He had longish dark hair and was just as pale as Professor Snape. Did he have a nephew or son that she didn't know about?
She kneeled down next to the unconscious man. She noted that he was all over quite sticky, so she knew to be careful that the potion might still have some effect. She scourgified his clothing first, to remove any excess potion that was on his person. She then lifted his head and held it in her hand, feeling the back of it for blood.
Severus began stirring. His head was ringing and he felt a little dizzy. Someone was cradling the back of his head, gently massaging it. He opened his eyes and saw a delightful view of cleavage. He felt a surge of hormones that he hadn't felt since his youth; His cock was stirring and he had to forcefully remind himself not to reach out and caress the breasts that were presented to him. He groaned, not sure if it was out of arousal or pain, but the woman holding him shifted.
He was met with amaretto brown eyes, swimming with concern and confusion.
Hermione was confused, looking over the visage of the man. His large Greek nose was exactly the same as Professor Snape's. She felt him stirring in her arms and gasped when she found herself looking into the deep, dark eyes of none other than her Professor. Thoroughly confused, she asked to confirm. "Professor Snape?" she asked tentatively.
Severus, realizing it was merely his apprentice, heard her question and was immediately filled with annoyance. "Of course it's me you daft girl! Who else would be in my lab, wearing my robes? And here I thought you were just an insufferable know-it-all." He tried to sit up, but Hermione stopped him. She knew that voice anywhere. It was definitely him.
"Professor, I don't think you should get up yet. You have a nasty bump on your head." She cleared her throat. "And...you don't look like you normally do. I think that I should go get Madame Pomfrey and Headmistress McGonagall."
He read the concern and confusion on her face. That's when he remembered. "My potion! Blast! The haliwinkle!" He quickly sat up and felt the dizziness wash over his body. He closed his eyes to stop the spinning. When he could stomach it, he opened his eyes again and looked around frantically. "Is there any left? Help me up!" He demanded of Hermione.
The girl hesitantly pulled his arm around her shoulder and then helped him up to review the scene. When he saw the burst cauldron, he groaned. "Nine months of work down the drain!" He supposed he should just resign himself to a life of disappointment.
He was overcome with another wave of dizziness, and swayed on his feet. Hermione's much smaller frame could barely support him. "Do you think you can walk to your chambers if I help you? I think I should bring Madame Pomfrey to you." She was biting her lip, worried.
Severus nodded, not trusting himself to speak when he was so emotionally upset. He seemed to be feeling each and every emotion much more acutely than usual. That was odd. Hermione helped him shuffle to the door to his personal chambers. He gave the password. She had never been allowed into his chambers before this moment. He groaned again as his body felt a fresh rush of arousal at the thought of Hermione taking him to bed. Where did that come from?
Hermione, thinking his groan was from pain, soothingly told him. "Just a little further, we are almost to your bed."
Once he was safely deposited in his bed, Hermione rushed from the room to get the nurse and the Headmistress. He watched her go and remembered what she said. He didn't look how he normally looked...? What if the potion flare up had disfigured him horribly - beyond recognition even?
He conjured himself a mirror and stared at his visage in a mix of horror and excitement. Staring back at him was himself...at twenty years old!
A/N: So! Here is the first chapter of Rest My Chemistry. This is what I am doing - I will post the first chapter of this and the first chapter of Wildest Moments (Voldemort/Hermione) and whichever gets the better response in, say, a week is the story that I will write first. Perhaps I would try to update simultaneously, but I typically find that they end up getting confused in my head.
I hope that you don't think that this is too overdone...I would love to read any ideas that you have for the story line - maybe something you've never seen done before and have always wanted to see. In this context of course. I want to try to keep it fresh and original. Oh, by the way, the title comes from an Interpol song.
So, please read one or both and let me know which you'd like me to write first! You can PM me if you'd like. I hope you liked!
Edited 4/27 for spelling errors.