Chapter 2: A Proposition

The day had flown past and as the clock struck four o'clock Hermione found herself knocking at Professor Snape's classroom door.

"Come in," a voice said sharply from within. Nervously, Hermione pushed the door open, her eyes landing immediately at the figure in front of the blackboard. With a wave of his wrist the door creaked slowly shut behind her. Breathing deeply, she walked to her usual desk and set her bag down on it before turning to face him, ready for the onslaught that was to come. He stood there silently, watching her intently, his eyes darting over her anxious face. "Miss Granger I have a proposition for you," he finally said, breaking the tension filled silence between them.

"Yes sir?" she asked, intrigued as to what it could be.

"You can either have detentions every night with me for a whole three months, or…you can take my classes for me for the same period of time. After all, you are far superior than me at teaching potions, are you not?" he asked sarcastically, a glint of sly satisfaction in his eye as he watched Hermione's horrified face.

"But sir I'm not fully qualified and Professor Dumbledore would never let me-"she said.

"I have already cleared it with the Headmaster, but if you are too much of a Gryffindor coward to accept my offer, I'm afraid that your only other option is to have three months of detention scrubbing cauldrons. It is after all, your choice," he finished smugly, crossing his arms in front of his chest.

"How will this work?" she asked timidly, the possibilities running through her mind.

"Under my conditions," he answered simply, taking a seat behind his desk.

"What would those conditions be, sir?" she questioned pulling out some parchment, a pot of ink and a quill from her bag.

"One: you must keep to my lesson plans to the letter. Two: you will stop all of your lessons apart from the ones you are teaching and therefore you will take revision lessons with either myself or another member of staff. Three: you must write a report of every lesson you take and hand it into me by the end of the day and finally, four: if you quit before the end of three months you will have to suffer a year long detention with me, every night. Do you understand?" he asked scrutinising her for the slightest reaction to what he had just said.

"Yes sir," Hermione answered scribbling down the last of the instructions on her parchment. Without a word he rose silently from his seat and pulled out a roll of parchment and a green leather bound book. He placed both on the desk in front of her and unrolled the parchment. There scrawled in black ink, was the unmistakeable writing of Professor Snape, as she read further down the document she realised that it was a binding magical contract.

"Sign here Miss Granger to begin your… teaching career," he said, pointing at a small gap at the bottom of the parchment. With a shaking hand she dipped her quill in her bottle of ink and swiftly signed the parchment before she could change her mind. He rolled it up quickly and placed it on his desk behind him. "This Miss Granger is my book of lesson plans; this will be the most important thing that I give you. Inside it are step by step instructions on every lesson for the next three months, from first years up to sixth years, this also includes the homework that I will expect you to give them. At the back is the mark list where you will record the homework marks for each student." He explained, before handing the book over to her. She took it nervously, turning to tomorrows date. To her horror she found that she had a lesson first thing and worse still, with a class of second year Gryffindor and Slytherin children. She looked up to see a sly smirk sweep across Professor Snape's features.

"Is that all sir?" she asked, trying to hide her sudden wave of panic.

"For now," he replied sweeping back behind his desk.

"Sir?" she asked swinging her bag back onto her shoulder.

"Yes, Miss Granger?" he snapped, turning his attention to her.

"If I'm to teach I will need the keys to this classroom and to the store cupboard too," she said calmly and innocently. He reached inside his drawer and pulled out a set of small silver keys. He slid them to the front of his desk, towards the already waiting outstretched hand of Hermione.

"I will want those back Miss Granger and if anything out of the ordinary disappears don't think I've forgotten about the Polyjuice potion incident," he said seriously, eyeing the keys in her hand. Without another word she nodded, smiled and headed towards the door, the green book clutched tightly in her hand. With one last glance at her Professor she closed the classroom door behind her. As soon as she was out of sight her smile faltered, what had she gotten herself into? Only tomorrow would tell.