"Professor Snape?" Hermione Granger cracked open the creaky door to the potions dungeon. Utter silence.
Okay, she thought, I guess I?ll just go and find Professor McGonagall.
Maybe she knows where he is. Not that she was overly eager to serve a detentions if she didn't try to find him. "Hmmph, probably will,
anyway," she muttered.
She backed out of the room, still hoping to catch a clue of where her professor had gone. "Woooaha!" Her exclamation rang through the dungeons. She threw her arms out to break her backwards fall.
"Miss Granger!" Hermione looked up, tracing the long, black, wool clad arm to it's source, who, conveniently enough, held her mere inches from the floor. Hermione hoped he had not heard her last comment.
She had no other defense, so she scowled. "Professor." He scowled worse. So she dropped the scowl. Then it dawned on her to act like she was hurt; he couldn't be too much of a bastard if she was hurt. Could he? "Oww! Ooh, ohh, ow, oh!" She whimpered and whined, testing the waters. He pulled her upright, none-to-gently.
"Are you quite finished snooping in my dungeons?" She guessed that he thought being a bastard was perfectly acceptable when a student was injured.
"Well, you told me to come down for detention, and I couldn?t find you." She rubbed her wrist, which had been scratched in the fall.
"Give me your wrist." She hesitated, "Damnit girl, give me your wrist"
his harsh tone made her flinch, but she slowly raised her hand. He muttered something about how she was always so ready to raise her hand in class and how he didn't know why it was so difficult, now. "It's hardly a scratch, nothing to whine about."
"That's because it is not my wrist...and I wasn't whining." He ignored the fact that if she hadn't been before, she certainly had started to.
"What is it, then," he snapped. Hermione searched through her brain for a viable illness to answer with.
"I've got cramps!" Her exclamation echoed off of stone walls. Hermione hadn't meant to shout. A heavy blush painted her cheeks, she just had to choose PMS, didn't she? He was sure to humiliate her; if not now,
then later... in front of the whole class.
"Come inside." Hermione practically sighed with relief. She followed him, thinking that maybe the cramps had caught him by surprise.
When he reached a convenient cauldron, he flicked his wand at the blackboard behind his desk. Ingredients began to scratch themselves out in his practiced hand. "Fetch those for me." The cramps must have caught him more off-guard than she thought. She did wish he could be more polite, though.
Nervous, and paying more attention to her professor's actions than her own, she fumbled a jar filled with some animal's pickled entrails, and they ended up bouncing, rather loudly, across the dungeon floor. "Miss Granger, handle my stores carefully, or the cost will come out of your own pocket!" She retrieved the entrails and finished gathering the rest of the ingredients, depositing them on the table near his cauldron.
"Aren't you supposed to preheat the cauldron?" Her picky nature made her comment on the fact that he hadn't even lit a fire.
"No, the ingredients react with one another, creating their own heat.
Haven't you read the college course books, yet?"
"Of course I have." She ignored the jab at her studiousness, "It just slipped my mind, that's all."
Professor Snape gave the potion one last stir and poured a ladle-full into a waiting goblet. "Stop trying to defend yourself and drink it."
"What?"
He spoke each word slowly and carefully, as if he were trying to force the instructions through a thicker student's head, like Crabbe or Goyle, "Drink. It." Hermione accepted the offered goblet and downed it in a single gulp. She set it down, wretching at the vile taste.
"What was that!"
Her professor sneered, satisfied. "A menstrual potion, it will prevent and ease any aches, pains, or... irritability; though I'm not sure it will help your brand of annoyance."
"Hmm, well, thank you," said Hermione, still wary, but trying to be polite.
He stood up, towering over her, "As it will be almost a full day before this potion can be safely stored, you will bottle and label it as your detention. Be here tomorrow, directly after dinner."
"Yes, Sir."
"It's past curfew, get back to your dormitory, immediately." He turned to put the ingredients away and she hastened to her room.
After Miss Granger left, Severus mused over the recent encounter.
Of course the Potions Master had known she would trip over him. He also knew that she couldn't break his unbreakable jars. He just couldn't resist toying with a Gryffindor.
Her complaint of cramps had caught him off guard, however. His mother had brought him up to be extremely sensitive to the plight of the female gender. He was always very civil about it, but he did not speak of it where it could be avoided. Thankfully, it was rare that it couldn't. Needless to say he was a bit nervous about the situation and was consequentially stiff when he had begun brewing. His student's mistake with the jars had been just the thing he needed to bounce back to his old self.
He continued to tidy the work area when a voice spoke out," Hello,
Severus."
"Hello, Lucius. You really didn't have to hide in the shadows. You could have used a memory charm if you didn't want her to remember you;
which you wouldn't as you're supposed to be in Azkaban."
"Wouldn't what? Use a memory charm? Or want her to remember me?" Malfoy Senior walked his fingers across the worktable in parody of a man,
"Because you know I would do the charm, and women never," he used extreme emphasis, "forget me." He flashed an almost blindingly white smile at Severus. Which was saying something in the gloom of the dungeons.
"Don't be a jerk. You know I meant you wouldn't want her to remember you. She'd run of to the golden boy and Dumbledore in a heartbeat,
and...," he paused and sighed, "it's too much trouble to think about."
Lucius waved his words away, "I know, I could have used a memory charm,
but I like to keep my on my toes. It's more fun to be sneaky."
"Indeed." Severus finished storing his ingredients and sat down at his desk to grade papers. Lucius followed and perched on the mahogany block.
"Look at you, down here in the dank, dark, dungeons; doing menial tasks by hand. What have you become?" Lucius reached out with two fingers,
posed as if in blessing, and lightly caressed a long line down the dark man's jaw. Severus merely ignored him, continuing grading, secure in his position among the Death Eaters. "You should get out more, meet a nice girl...or guy." he snorted at Lucius's ridiculous notion. "Don't laugh, your looks have promise. You've a nice jaw, a positively aquiline nose, and those eyes..." Lucius's eyes glazed over for a moment, "If only you'd wash your hair once in a while."
Severus waved him off, "Lucius, please stop harassing me. You know I'm not into guys."
"Fine, then." A bored look settled on the blonde's face. He slouched and twiddled his fingers for a moment before noticing his companion's task.
He began to rummage through the papers Severus was trying to grade. He slid one out for inspection, "Hermione Granger; Full Marks? She's a talented little mudblood, is she?"
"Yes," Severus snatched the paper back, "now mind your own business."
Lucius gracefully dismounted from the desk and began circling around,
tsk, tsk-ing at the man, "Severus, this is my business. The Dark Lord is looking for new recruits. I came to ask you for a list of promising students," he paused, "but it seems that will not be necessary."
"Are you quite all right, Lucius? Miss Granger is not applicable in the least. She's one of Harry Potter's best friends"
"I don't care," Lucius spat, "the Dark Lord wants her, which means it is your job to get her."
"Lucius I-," Severus tried to protest, but he would have none of it.
"Companion!" Lucius shouted in a voice that definitely did not promote companionship, "She seems to trust you, it shouldn't be hard to win her over."
"She doesn't trust me. She hates me like all the rest of them." Lucius raised a shaking hand, counting to ten to calm himself. He straightened and smoothed out his clothes, his composure back.
"She drank that potion of yours without even asking what it was until after she almost ruined that divine rug she was standing on. Just get her." He chuckled and patted Severus on the cheek, "You may be the Dark Lord's favorite, but remember, too, that this means he expects much more out of you. He'd be so extremely disappointed if you failed to deliver what he expects...and trust me, he'll be expecting her."
Severus shivered when he had left. Lucius never failed to shake him up.
After going to school together and tormenting him for years, it was only natural that he knew how to. He pulled out a sheet of parchment and scribbled out a quick letter to Dumbledore, explaining the situation. He would see to it that they would have an Order meeting over the upcoming break. They would discuss the issue there. In the meantime, Severus could only pray to God that the headmaster knew how to get out of this one.