Hermione had changed a lot over the years, Snape reflected, as he looked at
the board that displayed information about the Head Boy and Girl. Hermione
of course, was Head Girl, and he looked from one picture of her to the
other.
The first picture showed Hermione in her first year at Hogwarts. Eleven year old Hermione, bushy haired, clutching her schoolbooks tightly and smiling a winning smile, showing all of her unfortunate teeth. She was jumping up and down and almost bursting with excitement. In contrast, the picture next to it showed Hermione as she was now. Taller, with her thick hair tied back in two pigtails, allowing her pretty face to be the focus of attention. Her brown eyes shone mysteriously and her lips were curled up slightly at the edges, as if she was smiling at something that nobody else knew about. Her books lay loosely in her arms, and she looked enigmatic rather than excited.
Snape frowned, and walked on before anybody could notice that he was paying any attention to the board. He didn't like to attract attention; he didn't like people to wonder what he was doing, even if it was the most innocent of things. Usually he used the same rules for other people, he wouldn't interfere where he wasn't wanted, although of course observing things close by was a completely different matter. Snape watched everything and knew everything, quietly from a distance, but little really kept his interest. Except for Hermione.
He wasn't quite sure why Hermione intrigued him exactly. It wasn't lust, because although she was pretty, she wasn't exactly conventionally sexy. Her body was pale and skinny, and she hadn't developed the curves that other girls in her year had. Her hair was still bushy, not that you could really tell now that she kept it in pigtails. She had warm eyes and a friendly smile, Snape acknowledged, and she oozed calmness and confidence these days, but still, Snape knew that he wasn't lusting after his student.
And any other kind of feelings, love, platonic or otherwise, couldn't possibly apply either. That required getting to know one another, and Snape was quite sure he didn't know Hermione at all. She was so quiet, yet so confident, she could be hiding anything beneath that friendly charm and secret smile.
Snape decided it wasn't healthy to think about it, after all she was his student, even she was technically a young woman. He pushed the thought out of his mind and thought instead about the next lesson. Second year Hufflepuff and Ravenclaws, wasn't it? No, that was Tuesdays. It must be. Seventh years. Which meant, of course, Hermione.
*** "I'm sorry, I can't stay and chat, Harry, I've got a potions lesson to go to," Hermione said, apologetically, picking up her books off the table. "Maybe we can talk about it when we get back?"
"Fine," Harry nodded, and smiled, holding the door open for her to leave through. "You'd better run, you know what Snape's like."
"I'm not running. Then I'll be all out of breath and stressed by the time I get to Potions, and I'm stressed enough as it is. Snape will have to put up with me being two minutes late, it's only to be expected with my hectic timetable, Dumbledore himself said so."
"Alright then," Harry laughed. "Tell Draco I said hi, won't you?"
"I will." She smiled in farewell, and left, walking briskly through the door.
Now that she and Harry were head boy and girl, they shared a dormitory and common room of their own. She was grateful that she no longer shared a dormitory with five giggling girls, it was impossible to get any work done, and she had a lot of work to do these days. Instead of the usual three subjects students studied in the final two years, Hermione was studying five, and just about managing it. Her day was fully taken up with lessons, unlike the others in her year, and she still managed to keep up to date with her homework. The only subject she was having trouble with, was Potions.
Not because she was no good at it, far from it, merely that she had decided long ago that she and Snape didn't really get on. She had her own ideas about how to study, and most teachers gave her guidelines and then allowed her to get on with it, knowing that she'd ask for help if she needed it. Snape however, seemed to treat her and her class as though they were still first years, giving them precise orders that had to be followed exactly, to minimise on mistakes. That style of working didn't suit Hermione at all, who prided herself on her initiative and ways of working out priorities.
She took a deep breath, and prepared herself for another difficult lesson.
***
Snape frowned at the class assembled in front of him. In the sixth and seventh years, classes were much smaller, and in this class there were only three pupils. Snape was enough to put students off choosing Potions at seventh year level, and the only ones who had braved it this year were Hermione, Draco and, surprisingly, Neville. Except, Hermione wasn't here.
"Where is Miss. Granger?" Snape asked, his voice steady but annoyance glinting in his eyes.
"She'll be here in a minute, sir," Draco spoke up. "You know how busy her timetable is."
At that moment, the door opened, and Hermione appeared, shutting it after her carefully. The dungeon doors had a tendency to slam, an embarrassment for latecomers, but not gentle Hermione. "I'm so sorry I'm late, Professor Snape," she said, smiling apologetically and making her way to her seat. "I wanted to ask Professor McGonagall something after class, and then I had to go back to my dorm to get my books -"
"Yes, thank you Miss. Granger, we don't wish to know your diary entry for today," Snape said, icily. "Please take your seat and open your text book at page eighty-four. We've been waiting to begin our lesson."
Hermione sat down between Neville and Draco, and opened her book. "You could have started without me," she said, coolly. "I would've caught up. I don't inconvenience you on purpose, you know." She smiled sweetly, and Snape felt an urge to shout. He didn't, however, knowing that would solve nothing and only let Hermione win.
Hermione always had an answer, to every study question, and to every other question besides. She was never rude, always assertive, and that just frustrated Snape even more. She even spoke up on behalf of Neville and Draco, if he were ever to scold them. Neville was still too pathetic to stand up for himself, and Draco had become a completely different person this year. Snape prided himself on controlling his classes, but Hermione was something he wasn't sure how to control.
*** Hermione was aware that she had changed. She remembered, with a slight blush, the excited showing off girl she had been, and how she had slowly progressed on the young woman she prided herself on being today. Coming to Hogwarts had been what changed her, but it took her a long time. She'd thought that maybe being among her own kind would help her make friends, but she'd realised after a while that she was still someone people avoided. Eventually, with the kind help of Ron and Harry, she'd realised that among other things, people didn't like a show off.
She stopped raising her hand in class for every question. She worked out which rules were less important to keep. She stopped talking about how much she studied and how much everybody else should study, and kept her trips to the library private, unless asked by somebody with genuine interest. When she got braces, she was too self-conscious to smile broadly and after a few weeks of timid smiles, she'd learned that being over-excited scared people away. Now she knew all about subtle gestures of friendliness, and felt at ease in the company of anyone. Except for possibly Snape. If it wasn't for him, she thought, annoyed, she'd be able to fully concentrate in this lesson. Except she couldn't, because he kept standing behind her to see what she was writing. He seemed to be disappointed that she was doing all the correct work and understood it fully. She even got uncomfortable if he stood behind Draco or Neville. Draco would always tell her she was being silly, that she shouldn't let Snape get to her, but she couldn't help it.
"Hermione Granger, you'd think that after studying Potions for seven years, you'd know how to spell it by now," Snape said, his voice ripping through her thoughts.
Hermione looked down at her work hastily, and found that she had indeed spelt Potions with a 'F'. "Just a simple mistake, Professor Snape," she said, quickly.
"Perhaps you should learn to be so easily distracted, Miss. Granger," Snape smirked, and then moved steadily back to his desk.
Hermione glared at him while his back was turned and felt like ripping up her work. She felt a gentle hand on her arm, and Draco whispered, "Don't let him get to you. Keep working and don't think about it."
Hermione smiled at him gratefully, and nodded. She looked back at her paper, took a deep breath, and began to write. It was nice to have Draco in her class, she acknowledged, although she knew that three years ago she'd never have thought that. But then again, three years ago, neither Draco nor Harry would have ever considered being in love with the other. After a rather turbulent whirl wind romance, involving much crying and hurt on both parts, they had eventually succumbed to their love and began a long term relationship, much to the surprise of everybody at Hogwarts, except for Hermione and Ron who had been Harry's confidantes throughout, and Dumbledore who always seemed to know everything and had been the first to congratulate them. That had been at the beginning of the seventh year, and Hermione had become quite used to accepting Draco as a friend these days.
Glancing to the right of her, she saw that Neville was staring blankly at his textbook with a frightened look on his face and his paper was covered in crossed out words. Kindly, Hermione reached over and wrote down the ingredients for him. That was a start at least, now he just had to work out the percentages and proportions, and next time he might be able to work out the ingredients for himself. After all, last time she'd given him the list of ingredients and all the percentages but one, and he'd managed to work it out. And now, he was looking delighted at the clue she'd given him and was frantically scribbling down sums.
"Miss. Granger, did I just see you give Mr. Longbottom the answer?"
"No, Professor Snape, you saw me help Mr. Longbottom towards the answer. Only evidently you didn't, or you'd have known that instead of jumping to conclusions." She stared back at Snape, neither wanting to look away first.
Neville anxiously looked up, and Draco put a warning hand on Hermione's arm.
"Miss. Granger, I'd like you to stay behind after class."
"Very well, Professor Snape." Hermione nodded, and returned to her work, shaking off Draco's arm gently, and nodding at Neville to keep working. Somehow, she was going to get this formula to stick in her head. Then she could think about Snape.
***
Snape could sense her standing in front of his desk, could hear the door slam as Draco and Neville left, but he didn't look up from his marking of the third years' test papers. Best let her wait, although he wasn't quite sure why he was thinking that. Keeping her waiting would only get her cross and then she was more likely to get the better of him, and he wasn't really sure what she had against him other than her tendency to do just that.
"Professor Snape, I'm sorry, but if you can't talk to me right now I'm going to have to leave, because I have my Defence against the Dark Arts class next and I'm going to be five minutes late already." She sounded cross, rushed. But she said it calmly, and even added a smile when he looked up.
Snape put down his quill. Best be nice, he decided, or she'd only talk back more, and this issue with Neville was serious. "I'm sorry, Miss. Granger, the test papers are important, and you know how desperate the students are for their results, despite being against the tests themselves." He tried to be sociable, and get her on his side. After all, even if he wasn't entirely happy about her helping Neville, at least it was helping the pathetic student get decent grades. He'd just rather it was out in the open and appeared to be under his control, and not some furtive secret.
"Yes, Professor Snape, however I don't have time to hear your diary entry." Hermione retorted quickly, and then blushed. She looked away, and Snape thought perhaps that the normal confidant Hermione had been lost somewhere in her retort. If it had been anyone else to say such a thing, he would have lost his temper, but somehow it seemed so unlike Hermione to say something like that, it was hard to believe she'd said it. She always was so polite, yet assertive, never rude. Although, Snape reminded himself, he'd said it first, so he supposed he was the ruder one. But she had been late.
She was looking at him now, waiting for his reply, holding her breath.
"Well, Miss. Granger," he began, deciding to ignore that, and get to the point. "I'd like to talk about your. helping Mr. Longbottom find the answer."
"He was struggling, Professor Snape -" Hermione interrupted, clutching her books tightly in that way she'd done when she was still young. Hermione never interrupted, she always waited infuriatingly calmly for the other person to stop speaking.
"I'm aware of that, Miss. Granger. I wasn't about to lecture you," Snape said, firmly. "I merely wanted to check that you have time for Mr. Longbottom, when you have so much work yourself. I know your help for him extends to more than just tips in lessons. I recognise your handwriting in his exercise book."
"It's fine. It doesn't take much time to help him," Hermione assured him, starting to regain her cool attitude. "He's quite good at it when he gets the hang on it."
"Do not hesitate to let me know if you run into any difficulties, I'm sure I can arrange for someone else to give him extra help, seeing as he doesn't seem to be compatible with my methods of teaching."
"Yes. Thankyou, Professor Snape." Hermione nodded. "And. just so you know, it's just Neville that isn't compatible with it, Draco does just fine, and so do some of the sixth years I've spoken to, so don't think there's a problem with you or anything. At this level the ones that don't like Potions tend to choose other subjects, the younger kids are just either not grown up enough to realise the importance of education, or they just don't like the subject."
"Or me, perhaps." Snape smiled, dryly.
"I think Draco always liked you, Professor Snape." Hermione said, and then smiled that cool smile again, and headed for the door.
Snape frowned, and then smiled. Whether Hermione liked him or not would not be apparent from that sentence, he knew, because Hermione said what she thought was best, not what was necessarily true. Whether he liked Hermione or not, he still wasn't sure.
The first picture showed Hermione in her first year at Hogwarts. Eleven year old Hermione, bushy haired, clutching her schoolbooks tightly and smiling a winning smile, showing all of her unfortunate teeth. She was jumping up and down and almost bursting with excitement. In contrast, the picture next to it showed Hermione as she was now. Taller, with her thick hair tied back in two pigtails, allowing her pretty face to be the focus of attention. Her brown eyes shone mysteriously and her lips were curled up slightly at the edges, as if she was smiling at something that nobody else knew about. Her books lay loosely in her arms, and she looked enigmatic rather than excited.
Snape frowned, and walked on before anybody could notice that he was paying any attention to the board. He didn't like to attract attention; he didn't like people to wonder what he was doing, even if it was the most innocent of things. Usually he used the same rules for other people, he wouldn't interfere where he wasn't wanted, although of course observing things close by was a completely different matter. Snape watched everything and knew everything, quietly from a distance, but little really kept his interest. Except for Hermione.
He wasn't quite sure why Hermione intrigued him exactly. It wasn't lust, because although she was pretty, she wasn't exactly conventionally sexy. Her body was pale and skinny, and she hadn't developed the curves that other girls in her year had. Her hair was still bushy, not that you could really tell now that she kept it in pigtails. She had warm eyes and a friendly smile, Snape acknowledged, and she oozed calmness and confidence these days, but still, Snape knew that he wasn't lusting after his student.
And any other kind of feelings, love, platonic or otherwise, couldn't possibly apply either. That required getting to know one another, and Snape was quite sure he didn't know Hermione at all. She was so quiet, yet so confident, she could be hiding anything beneath that friendly charm and secret smile.
Snape decided it wasn't healthy to think about it, after all she was his student, even she was technically a young woman. He pushed the thought out of his mind and thought instead about the next lesson. Second year Hufflepuff and Ravenclaws, wasn't it? No, that was Tuesdays. It must be. Seventh years. Which meant, of course, Hermione.
*** "I'm sorry, I can't stay and chat, Harry, I've got a potions lesson to go to," Hermione said, apologetically, picking up her books off the table. "Maybe we can talk about it when we get back?"
"Fine," Harry nodded, and smiled, holding the door open for her to leave through. "You'd better run, you know what Snape's like."
"I'm not running. Then I'll be all out of breath and stressed by the time I get to Potions, and I'm stressed enough as it is. Snape will have to put up with me being two minutes late, it's only to be expected with my hectic timetable, Dumbledore himself said so."
"Alright then," Harry laughed. "Tell Draco I said hi, won't you?"
"I will." She smiled in farewell, and left, walking briskly through the door.
Now that she and Harry were head boy and girl, they shared a dormitory and common room of their own. She was grateful that she no longer shared a dormitory with five giggling girls, it was impossible to get any work done, and she had a lot of work to do these days. Instead of the usual three subjects students studied in the final two years, Hermione was studying five, and just about managing it. Her day was fully taken up with lessons, unlike the others in her year, and she still managed to keep up to date with her homework. The only subject she was having trouble with, was Potions.
Not because she was no good at it, far from it, merely that she had decided long ago that she and Snape didn't really get on. She had her own ideas about how to study, and most teachers gave her guidelines and then allowed her to get on with it, knowing that she'd ask for help if she needed it. Snape however, seemed to treat her and her class as though they were still first years, giving them precise orders that had to be followed exactly, to minimise on mistakes. That style of working didn't suit Hermione at all, who prided herself on her initiative and ways of working out priorities.
She took a deep breath, and prepared herself for another difficult lesson.
***
Snape frowned at the class assembled in front of him. In the sixth and seventh years, classes were much smaller, and in this class there were only three pupils. Snape was enough to put students off choosing Potions at seventh year level, and the only ones who had braved it this year were Hermione, Draco and, surprisingly, Neville. Except, Hermione wasn't here.
"Where is Miss. Granger?" Snape asked, his voice steady but annoyance glinting in his eyes.
"She'll be here in a minute, sir," Draco spoke up. "You know how busy her timetable is."
At that moment, the door opened, and Hermione appeared, shutting it after her carefully. The dungeon doors had a tendency to slam, an embarrassment for latecomers, but not gentle Hermione. "I'm so sorry I'm late, Professor Snape," she said, smiling apologetically and making her way to her seat. "I wanted to ask Professor McGonagall something after class, and then I had to go back to my dorm to get my books -"
"Yes, thank you Miss. Granger, we don't wish to know your diary entry for today," Snape said, icily. "Please take your seat and open your text book at page eighty-four. We've been waiting to begin our lesson."
Hermione sat down between Neville and Draco, and opened her book. "You could have started without me," she said, coolly. "I would've caught up. I don't inconvenience you on purpose, you know." She smiled sweetly, and Snape felt an urge to shout. He didn't, however, knowing that would solve nothing and only let Hermione win.
Hermione always had an answer, to every study question, and to every other question besides. She was never rude, always assertive, and that just frustrated Snape even more. She even spoke up on behalf of Neville and Draco, if he were ever to scold them. Neville was still too pathetic to stand up for himself, and Draco had become a completely different person this year. Snape prided himself on controlling his classes, but Hermione was something he wasn't sure how to control.
*** Hermione was aware that she had changed. She remembered, with a slight blush, the excited showing off girl she had been, and how she had slowly progressed on the young woman she prided herself on being today. Coming to Hogwarts had been what changed her, but it took her a long time. She'd thought that maybe being among her own kind would help her make friends, but she'd realised after a while that she was still someone people avoided. Eventually, with the kind help of Ron and Harry, she'd realised that among other things, people didn't like a show off.
She stopped raising her hand in class for every question. She worked out which rules were less important to keep. She stopped talking about how much she studied and how much everybody else should study, and kept her trips to the library private, unless asked by somebody with genuine interest. When she got braces, she was too self-conscious to smile broadly and after a few weeks of timid smiles, she'd learned that being over-excited scared people away. Now she knew all about subtle gestures of friendliness, and felt at ease in the company of anyone. Except for possibly Snape. If it wasn't for him, she thought, annoyed, she'd be able to fully concentrate in this lesson. Except she couldn't, because he kept standing behind her to see what she was writing. He seemed to be disappointed that she was doing all the correct work and understood it fully. She even got uncomfortable if he stood behind Draco or Neville. Draco would always tell her she was being silly, that she shouldn't let Snape get to her, but she couldn't help it.
"Hermione Granger, you'd think that after studying Potions for seven years, you'd know how to spell it by now," Snape said, his voice ripping through her thoughts.
Hermione looked down at her work hastily, and found that she had indeed spelt Potions with a 'F'. "Just a simple mistake, Professor Snape," she said, quickly.
"Perhaps you should learn to be so easily distracted, Miss. Granger," Snape smirked, and then moved steadily back to his desk.
Hermione glared at him while his back was turned and felt like ripping up her work. She felt a gentle hand on her arm, and Draco whispered, "Don't let him get to you. Keep working and don't think about it."
Hermione smiled at him gratefully, and nodded. She looked back at her paper, took a deep breath, and began to write. It was nice to have Draco in her class, she acknowledged, although she knew that three years ago she'd never have thought that. But then again, three years ago, neither Draco nor Harry would have ever considered being in love with the other. After a rather turbulent whirl wind romance, involving much crying and hurt on both parts, they had eventually succumbed to their love and began a long term relationship, much to the surprise of everybody at Hogwarts, except for Hermione and Ron who had been Harry's confidantes throughout, and Dumbledore who always seemed to know everything and had been the first to congratulate them. That had been at the beginning of the seventh year, and Hermione had become quite used to accepting Draco as a friend these days.
Glancing to the right of her, she saw that Neville was staring blankly at his textbook with a frightened look on his face and his paper was covered in crossed out words. Kindly, Hermione reached over and wrote down the ingredients for him. That was a start at least, now he just had to work out the percentages and proportions, and next time he might be able to work out the ingredients for himself. After all, last time she'd given him the list of ingredients and all the percentages but one, and he'd managed to work it out. And now, he was looking delighted at the clue she'd given him and was frantically scribbling down sums.
"Miss. Granger, did I just see you give Mr. Longbottom the answer?"
"No, Professor Snape, you saw me help Mr. Longbottom towards the answer. Only evidently you didn't, or you'd have known that instead of jumping to conclusions." She stared back at Snape, neither wanting to look away first.
Neville anxiously looked up, and Draco put a warning hand on Hermione's arm.
"Miss. Granger, I'd like you to stay behind after class."
"Very well, Professor Snape." Hermione nodded, and returned to her work, shaking off Draco's arm gently, and nodding at Neville to keep working. Somehow, she was going to get this formula to stick in her head. Then she could think about Snape.
***
Snape could sense her standing in front of his desk, could hear the door slam as Draco and Neville left, but he didn't look up from his marking of the third years' test papers. Best let her wait, although he wasn't quite sure why he was thinking that. Keeping her waiting would only get her cross and then she was more likely to get the better of him, and he wasn't really sure what she had against him other than her tendency to do just that.
"Professor Snape, I'm sorry, but if you can't talk to me right now I'm going to have to leave, because I have my Defence against the Dark Arts class next and I'm going to be five minutes late already." She sounded cross, rushed. But she said it calmly, and even added a smile when he looked up.
Snape put down his quill. Best be nice, he decided, or she'd only talk back more, and this issue with Neville was serious. "I'm sorry, Miss. Granger, the test papers are important, and you know how desperate the students are for their results, despite being against the tests themselves." He tried to be sociable, and get her on his side. After all, even if he wasn't entirely happy about her helping Neville, at least it was helping the pathetic student get decent grades. He'd just rather it was out in the open and appeared to be under his control, and not some furtive secret.
"Yes, Professor Snape, however I don't have time to hear your diary entry." Hermione retorted quickly, and then blushed. She looked away, and Snape thought perhaps that the normal confidant Hermione had been lost somewhere in her retort. If it had been anyone else to say such a thing, he would have lost his temper, but somehow it seemed so unlike Hermione to say something like that, it was hard to believe she'd said it. She always was so polite, yet assertive, never rude. Although, Snape reminded himself, he'd said it first, so he supposed he was the ruder one. But she had been late.
She was looking at him now, waiting for his reply, holding her breath.
"Well, Miss. Granger," he began, deciding to ignore that, and get to the point. "I'd like to talk about your. helping Mr. Longbottom find the answer."
"He was struggling, Professor Snape -" Hermione interrupted, clutching her books tightly in that way she'd done when she was still young. Hermione never interrupted, she always waited infuriatingly calmly for the other person to stop speaking.
"I'm aware of that, Miss. Granger. I wasn't about to lecture you," Snape said, firmly. "I merely wanted to check that you have time for Mr. Longbottom, when you have so much work yourself. I know your help for him extends to more than just tips in lessons. I recognise your handwriting in his exercise book."
"It's fine. It doesn't take much time to help him," Hermione assured him, starting to regain her cool attitude. "He's quite good at it when he gets the hang on it."
"Do not hesitate to let me know if you run into any difficulties, I'm sure I can arrange for someone else to give him extra help, seeing as he doesn't seem to be compatible with my methods of teaching."
"Yes. Thankyou, Professor Snape." Hermione nodded. "And. just so you know, it's just Neville that isn't compatible with it, Draco does just fine, and so do some of the sixth years I've spoken to, so don't think there's a problem with you or anything. At this level the ones that don't like Potions tend to choose other subjects, the younger kids are just either not grown up enough to realise the importance of education, or they just don't like the subject."
"Or me, perhaps." Snape smiled, dryly.
"I think Draco always liked you, Professor Snape." Hermione said, and then smiled that cool smile again, and headed for the door.
Snape frowned, and then smiled. Whether Hermione liked him or not would not be apparent from that sentence, he knew, because Hermione said what she thought was best, not what was necessarily true. Whether he liked Hermione or not, he still wasn't sure.