Summary:

Snape is forced to take a student as an apprentice/assistant to help with his teaching workload when he is given a secret project to work on. Unfortunately for him, Hermione Granger applies for the job and being the most qualified gets hired.

Hermione only wanted an opportunity to remain at Hogwarts but she didn't know what she was getting herself into when she applied to be Snape's apprentice.

Author's Note: This fic explains away or simply ignores many deaths that took place in DH.

Disclaimer – I don't own Harry Potter, the universe it takes place in, or any of the characters and I'm not making any money from this.

Ch 1: The Apprentice

Hermione was lost in thought as she walked to the last class she would ever attend at Hogwarts. While she had been ecstatic at the beginning of the year to learn that all students would be given the opportunity to redo the previous school year due to the inadequacy of a Death Eater-run Hogwarts, allowing her to return for her 7th year, she was not yet ready for it to be over. She was filled with a sense of loss. She had no idea what to do with her life. And how would she survive without everything she had come to rely on at Hogwarts, especially the library, where would she go now when she just needed to relax and forget about all the stressful things in her life?

While many jobs were now available as the wizarding community continued to rebuild after the war, none of them interested her. She wanted a job that involved some sort of learning and research but that also gave her the opportunity to expand on projects to protect magical creatures such as house elves. But there was simply no job like that. Staying at Hogwarts however would fulfill both of her wishes giving her the opportunity for learning as well as enough free time to work on devising a way to aid abused magical creatures. Perhaps she could get permission to stay as a part time student and take all of the classes that she had not been able to fit in her schedule over her years at Hogwarts.

The walk to her last class was over far too quickly and she had to snap herself back into reality. As luck would have it, her last class was Potions, which was once again taught by Professor Snape. Barely surviving the snake bite he had received during the final battle but then being forced by a new board of directors to give up his post as Headmaster to Professor McGonagall and return to his original job as Potions Master had done nothing for his temper. He had been even more ruthless than ever before when it came to disciplining his class and assigning homework.

Hermione wondered what Snape would have them do for their last class. Their NEWTs were over and there was no time left for graded assignments. Most of the other professors had simply given them a motivational speech or talked about how their subject would be important in the larger wizarding world or about job opportunities their subject applied to. Hermione found it difficult to imagine Professor Snape doing any of those things.

She sat down at her usual table, one of the first to arrive in the classroom. Harry and Ron arrived a few minutes after her and sat down next to her. Harry gave her a curt hello and Ron said nothing. Since Hermione had broken up with Ron the week before neither of them had really spoken to her. She believed she was completely justified in breaking up with Ron after he had made a complete fool of himself. He had goaded a Hufflepuff to start a food fight in the great hall for a reward of a stock of Honeydukes candy. The boy had taken the bait and Ron got to be a part of a food fight while escaping any blame. His actions had disgusted her so much that she had promptly broken up with him the same night, telling him that she expected a certain level of maturity out of someone who had helped defeat Voldemort.

Just as the silence between her and the boys was beginning to become unbearable, Snape entered the room with the usual dramatic billow of robes. She thought with a pang that she would even miss Snape after leaving Hogwarts.

"Take out your books and turn to page 590," he began, "there you will find the potion you will be making today."

With that he sat down and pulled out a book off his desk and began reading. When no one moved, he glanced up, "Begin," he said in his most commanding voice.

This pushed Hermione into motion. She took out her book and began reading through the ingredient list.

"But sir," Ron said in a whiney way, "this is our last day of school, surely you don't expect us to actually do work. Anyway there's no way you can make us."

"On the contrary, Mr. Weasley," Snape said, glaring at him, "you will do as I say. If not, I believe Gryffindor has 450 points now, yes? I will take 10 away for every minute you sit there and do nothing, we have 45 minutes left of class, I believe. Surely even you can figure out what Gryffindor will be left with if you continue to do nothing."

That was enough to get the rest of the class pulling out their textbooks with exasperated sighs.

Snape looked up at the class five minutes before the end of the class. None of them were remotely close to finishing their potions, except of course Miss Granger, who was vigorously stirring the potion. He couldn't wait until the hour was over and he would be free of Potter and his gang for the rest of his life.

"You may finish now," he said, "please put whatever you have in a vial and bring it to the front. If you have done an adequate job, I won't take any points from you." He waited for the students to finish up.

"Now, I have one final announcement to make. It appears that Headmistress McGonagall has found extra responsibilities besides the usual teaching for me to do next year and she insists that I take a student from this year's graduating class as an apprentice and teaching assistant. I have no need for any help but the Headmistress insisted so I'm forced to offer you all the opportunity to apply. If you wish to apply talk to me after class."

Miss Granger's hand shot up vigorously in the air, Snape sighed, he thought he was done with having to answer her endless questions.

"Yes, Miss Granger," he said reluctantly.

"Sir, what criteria will you be looking at when you evaluate the applications for this position?"

Snape prayed she was just asking to satisfy her curiosity and not actually thinking of applying for the job, he didn't think he could survive a year with Hermione Granger as an apprentice.

After a moment, he answered, "We will look at your NEWTS of course, as well as your overall performance in Potions and other classes over your time at Hogwarts. The application also requires you to write an essay about what qualifies you for the post and one about a current research area in the subject of Potions. Now if there are no more questions, you are dismissed."

It was strangely anticlimactic, Hermione thought. For someone who had started his class with such an intimidating speech about the glory of Potions, to end with such a simple statement. As other students left the classroom, she approached Snape's desk. As much as she dreaded working with him, it would be a sacrifice she would have to be willing to make if she wanted to stay at Hogwarts.

"Professor," she began, "could I have one of those applications you mentioned?"

He shoved a roll of parchment in her hand, "It is due within two weeks and we will notify you if you got the post within four weeks from now. But I wouldn't count on it, if I were you I would start looking for other options."

"Thank you sir," she said quickly, fleeing the room clutching her one chance to return to Hogwarts.

4 weeks later:

Hermione paced across her room. She should hear back from Hogwarts about whether they had chosen to hire her today. Each moment that a reply failed to come her stomach sank lower and lower. She was panicking that perhaps the owl that had been carrying her application had gotten injured and never made it to the castle, or that they had lost her application, or that Snape had torn it up before McGonagall got the chance to see it.

She had spent nearly all her time looking for a job but she just couldn't find one that was anywhere as interesting as the prospect of staying at Hogwarts. She knew that she was the most qualified person for the job but she might lose it to someone else because of Snape's personal dislike for her. Ron and Harry had told her that she was crazy for wanting to work with him, but she hadn't expected them to understand. She had to stay at Hogwarts, she wouldn't feel at home anywhere but at a place of learning and Hogwarts was the best one around. Working with Snape wouldn't be the most agreeable, but it would be worth it if it gave her the chance to return to Hogwarts. And she knew that Snape, more than any other Professor, had pushed her to succeed. His rude comments and refusal to praise anything she did had only pushed her to succeed further. When in other classes she would stop working on an essay once she knew it was nearly perfect, in Potions she had always agonized about little details, hoping that this time Snape would give her praise in addition to the usual criticism. It never happened, but it had seemed that his criticism had become less scathing over the years.

She heard a tapping on the window and she ran to open it. The owl fluttered into the room, and she detached the letter from its leg and tore it open with even more anxiety than when she had opened her NEWT results months before. The first thing she noticed was that it was written in Snape's small, meticulous script. Her heart fell, if Snape was the one to write the letter there was no chance that she had been chosen to return.

She read, "Dear Miss Granger, I regret to inform you that…" she lowered the page, feeling her eyes tear up. It just wasn't fair, she was the most qualified; the position should have been given to her. Some impulse caused her to keep reading Snape's letter, it read, "I regret to inform you that you have, much to my dismay, been chosen as my official apprentice and teaching assistant for the next term at Hogwarts. You should know that you were not my first choice, nor even my fifth, but even I had to agree that by the objective criteria we had created you were the most qualified. You will return to Hogwarts a week before the students arrive. Do not expect me to be any more civil to you now than I was in the past. I have no intention of being your mentor or friend, you will assist me only when I ask and you are not to offer your help unprompted.

-SS"

Hermione was struck with joy and annoyance at the same time. He had purposely tried to trick her with that first line, she was sure. And he hadn't even bothered to properly sign the letter! But then again she had gotten the job and she could stay at Hogwarts for another year at least. She decided to leave for a bookstore as soon as possible, she would research everything Snape could possibly expect her to know so he wouldn't find her lacking.

Author's Note: I hope you enjoyed the first chapter. Let me know what you thought!!