Disclaimer: I do not own nor am I affiliated with JK Rowling or the Harry Potter fandom. I am writing this story simply for fun, although it would be nice to be able to own Sevvy. :]

Chapter 3

"Class," Snape started, "We will be doing a potion which McGonagall doesn't think you ever need to know, which of course makes me want to teach it to you." He chuckled to himself. "Today we will be making Amortentia. Can anyone tell me what that is?" He looked around the room and didn't see anyone raising their hands.

"Ooh! I can!" Hermione said as she raised her hand from behind him.

"Not you, Miss Granger."

"Oh."

Finally one girl raised her hand, "It's a love potion, sir."

"Yes. Yes it is."

"10 points to Hufflepuff." Hermione piped up.

The class smiled, well at least the Hufflepuff side. The Slytherins weren't so happy.

"Right." Snape said gruffly. "As I was saying, Amortentia is indeed a love potion. The instructions are on the board. Please begin."

The class got started and Hermione watched as Snape walked over to her. "Did you have to do that?"

"You know full-well that if Slytherin had answered that question, you would have given them points. I was just sticking up for the rest of them." She smiled. She loved annoying him.

"Well do try not to do it too often."

"I'll do it as often as I see fit."

Snape stalked away and went to peer over the students' shoulders as they were working, which only caused several of them to mess up, their cauldron exploding. Hermione shook her head and called him over.

"What do you want now?"

"You're making everyone mess up. Stop walking around."

"Well I have to see if anyone needs any help."

"If they need help, they can call for you. You don't need to make them need your help."

"Fine." He sat down at his desk, Hermione sitting on top of it, and sneered. "Would you please get off of my desk?"

"No way. It's comfy here." He sighed and started grading papers from the other class.

"Miss Granger, can you come help me please?" She got up and went to the Slytherin on the other side of the room.

"What can I help you with?"

"Oh well, I just wanted to see if I was doing it right."

"It looks right to me. Did you follow all the instructions?"

"Yep."

"Well then it should be good to go."

She walked back up to the front. Not noticing the giggling children on that side of the room as they held up a couple pieces of hair from Hermione's head. The kids weren't sure if they needed it, but just to be sure…

"Miss Granger! Professor Snape! Come quick! I need your help!" A little voice screamed from the back of the room.

Both got up and went into the back of the room to see that nothing was amiss. "What do you need?" Snape demanded.

"Nothing sir. Nothing at all."

They both turned around to notice that all the students had set up a barricade so they couldn't go anywhere. Out of nowhere, a few came over with a cauldron. "What are you doing? Go sit down." Snape barked before the cauldron was dumped over his head. He hadn't even realized what had happened until he had pulled the cauldron off of his head and was looking at Hermione, who was trying to stop herself from laughing.

"Oh my Merlin. Snape you look… like a wet rat." She giggled.

"Well, Miss Granger, I can honestly say you look," Snape started talking, not completing his sentence before the potion seemed to kick in, "absolutely ravishing."

Hermione looked at Snape like he was crazy. "Have you gone mad?"

"Yes. Mad for you, my darling."

The students just sat there laughing as they watched Snape trying to get closer to Hermione. Hermione just backed away each time though.

"Professor, maybe you should go see Madame Pomfrey. I fear you may have swallowed some of the students' Amortentia."

"I feel perfectly fine, Miss Granger. There is no need to go see Poppy."

"Right. Well. Class dismissed. I have to go on some errands. I'll be back later." She quickly waved and then high-tailed it out of the room.

"Miss Granger, what are you doing out of class?" Professor McGonagall's voice rang through the halls.

"Professor, I was just going to go get Poppy. There was a slight mishap in potions today and I think it best if she takes a look."

"Right. On with it then." McGonagall gave one last stern look at Hermione's retreating back. There is something seriously up with that child. She couldn't help but think.

When Hermione got into the hospital wing, she was surprised, and pleased, to find that Madame Pomfrey didn't have any patients. "Madame Pomfrey, you must come see. Professor Snape has swallowed some Amortentia."

"But that potion is banned from Hogwarts."

"Does anybody really ever listen to what Filch bans?"

"No I don't suppose so. Alright. I'll take a look."

They hurried down to the dungeons and walked into the potions room. The entire class was still sitting there. Almost as if they were waiting for a second half of the show to commence.

"Now I thought I told you all class was dismissed." Hermione scolded.

"Well we still have 20 minutes left, and we figured Professor McGonagall wouldn't take too kindly to that. So we stayed." One of the students answered her.

"Alright, fine. Where is Snape?"

"Over there in the corner. I believe he is writing you a poem. Or a song."

Hermione growled under her breath and walked over to him. "Madame Pomfrey, please fix this."

Poppy stood there, reading over Snape's shoulder at what he was writing. "Now dear, don't you think it would be fun to find out what he honestly thinks of you?"

"This isn't honest, Poppy." Hermione snarled. "This is all effects of a potion."

"That's where you're wrong dear. I saw some of the potion on the floor, the students messed it up, though I don't know if it was on purpose." She laughed silently. "Either way, they didn't make Amortentia, instead they made a potion that enhances the way a person truly feels. These are his true feelings, the ones he feels inside. The ones he would never show. But they are his feelings nonetheless."

Hermione stood rooted to the spot. She didn't want to believe a word that the older woman was saying. What would she know anyway? It's not like she ever worked with potions… Hermione trailed off at the end of her thought. Who was she kidding? All Poppy ever did was work with potions.

"Now come over here and let's see what he is trying to tell you." She grabbed Hermione's arm and pulled her over so that she too was reading the words that seemed to be flowing from Snape's quill.

I shouldn't love you

But I want you

I just can't turn away

I shouldn't see you

But I can't move

I can't look away

And I don't know

How to be fine

When I'm not

'cause I don't know

How to make the feelings stop

Hermione couldn't help but smile at the words. It almost seemed as if Snape had a heart. She laughed to herself. Of course Snape had a heart. He was human after all. Although, this was a shock to her.

Snape turned around as he was about to start the next line. Looking almost embarrassed that they were standing over him watching as he wrote his feelings out on paper. "Um… can I help you guys?"

Poppy stifled a giggle and turned to Hermione. "Do you want it now, or do you want him to at least finish the poem?"

Hermione blushed. "It doesn't matter."

"Alright. Then by all means Severus, please return to your writing. We will go watch the class."

Hermione and Poppy walked back to the class and Snape went back to writing the poem.

That night at dinner, everyone seemed to be buzzing about the fact that earlier in the day, Snape had been completely infatuated with the newest member to the Hogwarts staff. Luckily, Poppy had given him an antidote so he was no longer begging her to marry him. Hermione couldn't help but blush, remembering that.

"Now students and staff." Professor Flitwick stood up on the table to be heard over the din. "Before Professor Dumbledore left us, he had one wish. That wish was that the entire school had a… talent show… so to speak. If you have been a student here in the last four years then you already know this and probably had your song picked out on the very first day of school. For everyone else, the rules are simple.

"Every student, and every staff member, whether they be in a group or not, are to sing a single song. Groups can be no larger than 5 people. And while it is not necessary to dedicate songs to anyone, people get more points if they write their own songs to sing for the audience. The house with the most points at the end of the talent show gets an extra five hundred points awarded to their tally."

The chatter that followed this statement was disturbingly loud. "Please sign up with your song of choice by no later than next Friday. Thank you."

Well this is going to be interesting. Hermione thought.

Oh Merlin. I don't know any popular songs. I suppose I could sing something old fashioned. Snape thought.

"Oh and if your name is Severus Snape," Flitwick started saying to just the staff table, "You have to sing a song that you've written and you have no choice in the matter." All the other professors smiled and Flitwick clapped himself on the back for his quick thinking.

Bloody fuck. Snape pouted. He did not want to sing in front of the students, had managed to get out of it every other year by being sick on the day of the show, but he knew there was no getting out of it this year. Thanks to those bloody kids and their bloody potion that let bloody Granger know what he was bloody thinking. How Severus, how many times can you use bloody in a sentence and have it still make sense? He growled at himself and cursed the students inwardly.

Then he cursed Hermione Granger inwardly. Not because she had somehow tricked the students into being stupid enough to create that potion and use it on their professor rather than their friends or their crushes, but because she had been there when it happened. She had been the cause of it happening. If she hadn't been around, the kids wouldn't have become suspicious and they wouldn't have made him blurt his true feelings, in a rather pathetic manner, in front of the whole school.

Okay maybe not the whole school, but saying those things in front of the thirty students he had in his class at that time was close enough to telling the entire school. They all knew by now anyway, whether that had seen it or not.

If only he hadn't offered to give her the job. If only she hadn't come back at all. But he knew in his heart that he didn't want that. He wanted her to be there, wanted her to have the job, wanted her to be around for him to talk to and for him to console when she needed someone. You're going soft, old man. But he didn't mind. Not when it came to Hermione Granger. There was something about her, something that made him want to keep her close by and protect her from all the dangers of the world.

It's probably only because you think you owe her for nearly killing her, and for getting that Weasley girl killed. It is all your fault, you know. You were the one who ruined her life. You and you alone.