Severus Snape
11th September 1996
It is only a matter of days left now. Hours until that moment I have been waiting for since I was merely an adolescent child. I have left myself go since then. I have been deteriorating since her death. There is only so much death one man can take and I can no longer withstand it. But now, I have been blessed with a second chance. Oh sweet Merlin, thank you for this chance. I promise to you now that I will not waste it. Somehow, I will figure out how to change what happened for both my sake and hers.
My gaze was fixated on the clock mounted to the back wall of my classroom. How the seconds pass by so slowly when one wants them too. I have the clock mounted there for a reason. My students do not understand it, as they are too shallow minded to dig deep enough into their hollow heads to find their brains. All apart from one girl, who I am pretty sure understands it. Simply put, the clock is counting down until that day, that time when perhaps life will change.
"Sir."
My eyes flickered to the source of the voice and stared coldly at the girl who had interrupted my thought process. Earlier today, whilst my sixth year Defence Against the Dark Arts class continued to work on an essay that was worth five percent of this year's total mark, I was correcting fifth year mock OWL exams. Those fifth years are truly mentally retarded. Merlin knows where they learned half the stuff they wrote on that paper I set them on the first day back at school.
"What is it, Miss Granger?" I sighed and got to my feet. I shook my head slightly; the weariness washing over me as I glanced at the length of Hermione Granger's essay. I had clearly stated two feet of parchment, not triple the length. Did she not think I had anything better to do than grade her overly long and complicated essays? They are brilliant though, I must admit. Though, I wonder where she got her mind from, as I am sure her parents are only Muggle dentists. I suppose I cannot be a hypocrite. I too am brilliant and was brought up with a Muggle father.
Granger pointed to her textbook, as she rambled on about how the philosophy the author had written on Petrifaction was completely and utterly absurd, and should never have been written into a textbook. What did she want me to do about it? Rewrite the textbook? She could probably do better than I could.
"Write your own philosophy if it means so much to you, Miss Granger," I muttered.
"But sir!"
"'But sir' nothing, Miss Granger. You will do as I ask when I say so and you will keep your know-it-all questions to yourself. Understand?"
The girl nodded once curtly, obviously annoyed by my lack of guidance. I was her teacher and she, my pupil. It was supposed to me she came to when she had questions or she did not understand. Granger probably thought I was lousy teacher with only respect for myself. That was probably true. I hide behind my self respect and I prefer it that way.
Granger tucked a lock of curly caramel coloured hair behind her ears, her intelligent brown eyes skimming over the textbook once again as she sighed irritably. It is incredible how that once bushy haired bookworm has grown to be such a beautiful woman. Sixteen years old with the intelligence of a three hundred year old man; Dumbledore had laughed one evening while he and I were discussing her.
Potter on the other hand, was not so brilliant this afternoon. Ronald had 'misplaced' his textbook and moved to sit next to Potter, so they could share. Of course they did nothing other than whisper to each other and scribble along the margins of Potter's textbook. I decided that I would not interfere as I would be more than happy to take the five percent that this essay was worth off both of them.
The bell rung at exactly two o'clock screeching through the ears and into the minds of the barely awake students. Granger was packed up and out of her chair in a matter of seconds, ready to rush off to her next class. It was quite obvious that neither Ronald nor Potter had any classes left today and were ready to take an afternoon nap.
"Miss Granger," I called, keeping my monotone voice level. My fingers slipped across the silky old wood of my desk and rested on the knob of a small drawer. "I need to speak with you."
Granger's face contorted into one of confusion. I never had held her back behind class before, and both she and I knew it. She approached me quickly, physically trembling in anticipation to get to her next class.
I pulled open the drawer I had my hand on and pulled out a necklace. I held it out in front of her and she audibly gasped.
"It has come to my understanding that you previously possessed one of these and your permission to use one has not yet been outdated. For the time being, I would prefer if you kept this in your possession. My permission to use these has been terminated by the ministry therefore I would have to hand it in. This has been in my mother's family for generations and no one would ever suspect that I would give it you."
In reality, I did have permission to use a Time-Turner and it had never been in my mother's family. I had personally gone out and got this Time-Turner fixed for me.
"Are you sure, Professor?" she asked, unsure whether to take it or not.
I nodded once, "Of course I am, Miss Granger."
She took the chain the Time-Turner from my hand and held it in her fingers, inspecting the silver carefully. Her hand was soft against mine for that millisecond we touched. I almost sighed in relief as she touched me, but held it in for the sake of both mine and her sanity.
She mumbled a thank you and left the classroom, almost taking to a sprint. I smiled pitifully as she left. I had altered the Time-Turner myself. At exactly the clock on my wall reached its destination time, the Time-Turner would spin of its own accord. It would take her back to the time I first met her. If I had any respect for anyone apart from myself in my body, I probably would not have done this. But time is time, and it would happen no matter what I did.