The second chapter!
Thanks for the lovely reviews!
Meanwhile, Hermione came back to her senses and walked to the table with the mysterious object that 'Snape' had left behind.
On the table stood a vial, which contained a thick transparent kind of liquid.
Hmm, water? Nah that's thinner. It looks like slime. Maybe it is... No he wouldn't...
But the closer she looked how clearer it became that it was exactly what she thought it was.
Saliva! His saliva! In a vial! Bah, gross!
She quickly held the vial at arms length away.
Why would he give me his saliva in a vial? He is definitely hiding something! But what?
Suddenly, she remembered the book again. Look inside the can, huh? That I haven't thought that myself!
Full of good hope she pried the lid off and there it was. The book. She grabbed the book from the bottom of the can. It was as big as an eraser. A shrink spell, of course!
She quickly said the counter charm and watched how the spell the book grew back to its original format. It was a light brown book with on the cover in big red letters the title The Book of Love. It seemed as if the whole book had a pink glow.
She opened the book on the first page: the index. The page was covered with hearts that hovered over the pages and each new subject was indicated with a cupid. Ugh, typical Fred and George to decorate a book so extravagant.
She searched for the right page and read the instructions.
Hmm, that doesn't seem too hard.
Suddenly her eye fell on the last line of the page. There it was, in small letters: "To complete this potion, one must use a little saliva of the person from whom you want to know how they think about you."
Ah, that's were the saliva for is! That's disgusting! Hold on, how does he know that I would need that? Moreover, if he wanted me to make this potion, why didn't he just tell me what he thinks of me? Like I said, something strange is going on!
She quickly gathered her stuff together and tiptoed back to her Dormitory as fast as possible. She changed in to her PJs and climbed into bed. The last thing on her mind was how to get all the ingredients needed for the potion.
The next morning, she woke up early. She dressed and trudged to the Great Hall. From the outside it may seemed as if Hermione was still half asleep, but inside her head, her mind was already making overtime, trying to figure out a way to get those ingredients without anybody noticing. She absently started chewing on some toast and didn't notice Harry and Ron making their way to her. Ron plopped down beside her and Harry went to sit opposite from her.
"Hey Hermione, you're there?" Ron said and waved his hand in front of her eyes. After a few times of trying to get her attention he said to Harry: "Harry, I think she is sick. She gives no answer. "
"Nah, she's just deep in thought. It probably has something to do with homework. Talking about homework, have you already finished yours for Transfiguration?"
"What?! We had homework?!" Ron said, completely forgetting about Hermione.
Meanwhile, Hermione had already devised several ideas.
I could, of course, try to sneak them with me under Potions. If I smuggle one or two with me in my bag each lesson… He might not even notice, but then again, he did notice when Moody used his ingredients. Oh, I could also just buy them, but they are very expensive and I am actually saving for a new set of vials.
She was so deep in thought that she didn't notice the post arriving and the brown screech owl hopping in front of her to get attention. In fact, Hermione didn't even notice the brown screech owl hopping in front of her, trying to get her attention. Well, that is until the owl decided to bite in her hand to get her attention. A very effective way, because it she startled her so much that she dropped her toast and immediately forgot her ideas. She looked at her hand. At the tip of her ring finger a drop of blood started to form. She quickly reached for a napkin and pressed it against her finger to stop the bleeding.
"What idiot..." Suddenly she noticed the owl, on his right leg was a square parcel as big as a toaster.
"A parcel? For me? But I haven't ordered anything, right?"
"Apparently you did Hermione. Why else would that owl have been hopping in front of you for the last ten minutes? Maybe you should daydreams less." Harry said laughing.
"I was not daydreaming and besides, even if he has really been here for the last ten minutes I certainly would have noticed him." She said coldly.
"Yes indeed, just like you would have heard my question to you about our transfiguration homework or Harry's story about this weird dream he had last night, right mate?" Ron said while he, like Harry, started laughing.
"Yeah, well you can make your own homework Ronald! Don't expect me to help you! "
"Oh, come on Hermione! I was just kidding!" He tried.
"Well, you should have thought about that before you started making fun of me." She responded.
Defeated he got up and walked with Harry out of the Great Hall.
"She'll come around. You know her, right? She's not really mad at you." Harry said to him.
Hermione had her attention already focused on the owl and was now trying to get the parcel from his leg. Once the parcel got loose the owl merrily flew away.
She opened the parcel and saw, to her great surprise that it contained ingredients, and not just some random ingredients, but exactly what the ones she needed for her potion. She searched for a note, but there was none.
Strange, who would send me these ingredients? It couldn't be... No, professor Snape would never do something like that.
Yet she could not resist to take a quick look at Professor Snape. He was in a conversation with Professor Flitwick and had absolutely no attention for the students, let alone for Hermione.
See, of course he wouldn't send me those. She thought disappointed. Oh well, it doesn't matter. The important thing is that I have all the ingredients. The only thing left now is brewing the potion. I think I'll bring Moaning Myrtle a visit. Brrr, the thought alone gives me the chills.
She gathered her stuff and walked to the second floor Girls ' Lavatory. Fortunately Myrtle wasn't there so Hermione could undisturbed go to work.
It was almost four o'clock when the potion was finished. The only thing she had to do was add the saliva. Using a ladle, she poured the now colourless liquid in a glass. The potion that was left she put in several vials.
I'm pretty sure Lavender would like to use this as well.
Hermione knew the meaning of the colours:
Red meant true love.
Yellow meant hate.
Green meant jealousy.
Blue represented trust.
Purple meant friendship.
Orange meant attraction.
Each colour had a different meaning.
Shaking with nerves she poured the saliva in the glass. For a long time nothing happened and she began to wonder whether she had done everything correctly, when suddenly the colour began to change. Yellow, purple, Brown, red, green, Orange, blue.
At first very slowly, but getting faster until she could make no distinction between the different colours anymore. Slowly the colours merged together and formed one colour. A dark red colour.
Love! Shot through her. He loves me! Full ofdisbelief she grabbed the book and checked the meaning again. There it stood: Red stands for true love.
She immediately forgot everything around her and sprinted from the Girls ' Lavatory, down to the Dungeons and stopped in front of the door.
The door which led to Severus Snape's Private Quarters.
She waited a minute to take a breath and then knocked on the door. There sounded some noise on the other side of the door and she heard the lock of the door open. Slowly the door opened and there he stood, in all his glory, the man who left Hermione speechless, Severus Snape.
After a minute of deep silence he said curtly: "Yes, miss Granger?"
That snapped Hermione out her daze and before she even realised what she did she threw her arms around his neck and kissed him full on his mouth. Too shocked to react, he just stood there with his arms hanging limb beside him. It wasn't long before he came back to his senses and with all his might he pushed Hermione by her shoulders away.
"What do you think you're doing?!"