Downside of Aging Potions - Chapter Four


I'm watching you,
Now, I'm staring at you.
I figure that you notice,
But you don't really have a clue.
-The Ataris, Sleepy

The next few weeks passed by rather slowly. Snape had made no further progress in his little 'project' and Hermione was in heavy research.

Orpine: Found in dry, sandy areas; particularly deserts. Also known as the Immortalia, it is moist plant of the genus Sedum, commonly in the Eurasian species.

She hadn't shown it to Snape yet. She wanted to make sure it was worth his time, unlike a few of her last suggestions.

Hermione had once again set up camp in the library; Defence-Against-the-Dark-Arts homework crushed beneath a heavy tome entitled Mystical Elements. It was a Monday afternoon, approximately 4:40, and she was ready to fall asleep. Not that Snape was over-ambitious, but he could be quite demanding.

She closed her eyes, just for a few minutes...

"Hermione," A low voice crooned beside her ear.

She lifted her head and her eyes snapped open at the sight of Professor Snape- shirtless. She stared at his muscled chest for an indeterminate interval before she squeaked, "Yes?"

He walked towards her and grabbed her hand, sitting on the edge of the table.

"W-what are you doing?" She asked, staring at one of his large hands as they started curling around her back.

He drew her closer to him. She noticed that her respiratory system seemed to be malfunctioning.

'What the hell is going on?' She thought frantically. This was certainly not Snape.

Just as he bent down to engage her in a heavy, passionate kiss, someone started tapping on her shoulder. "Not now..." She murmured.

"Hermione!" Closer...

"Go 'way..." She was drowning in heavy passion as their lips almost touched.

"Hermione!"

Her head snapped up. Snape was nowhere to be seen; well obviously, only a fool would hang around semi-naked in a Library after trying to seduce a student.

It was a dream. That was the most realistic dream she'd ever had. Not to mention the best...she stopped that train of thought. Back to reality...

"Ron, what is it?"

"Well, it's almost midnight and we haven't seen you all evening, so Harry and I went back to look for you. He's in the Astronomy Tower right now."

"Oh," she checked her watch, "I'm sorry. Got caught up in research. And since when do you care? I'm always in the Library at this time."

She closed her books and gathered her notes.

"I don't know, thought you might have been with Snape or something."

Ron didn't hear her imperceptible mumble; "I was…until you woke me up, that is."

Hermione woke up to an owl, to her irritation, as she was trying to finish that dream from the previous evening. Snape sent Gaius with a note asking her to come to his office before school.

Gaius followed her to breakfast even after she gave it a reply.

"Has he been neglecting you again, Gaius?" She asked the raven owl in a croon. When Snape got caught up in his potions, he forgot to feed him, along with himself.

Hermione gave the owl a piece of toast and stroked his feathers. When the owl was done eating it flew off to deliver the letter.

"Whose owl is that?"

"Hmm? Oh, it was Viktor's." she dismissed airily.

She did correspond with Krum, but certainly not as much as she said. She just liked to watch Ron do impressions of a beetroot.

They sat down with her and as soon as she finished her oatmeal, she wiped her mouth.

"See you in class."

"School doesn't start for another half an hour. Nobody walks that slowly."

"I have something to take care of." She called over her shoulder.

She rolled her eyes as she heard Ron mumble moodily, "Yeah, more like someone..."

!

"You wished to speak with me?"

Her question was directed at the window behind him, annoyed that he was bringing back vivid memories of her dream. But he was in his regular, charcoal robes, at his lab and adding more Healing Potion.

He looked up, "Yes... I had a thought last night..." He set the bottle down and stirred.

She scrunched her face up at the smell of the brick red potion.

"Shouldn't we be testing these samples on real…corpses?" He asked, not directly to her, but more to let the question hang between them.

Hermione thought for a few minutes before she asked, "Well, wouldn't that require a-a dead person?"

"My sentiments exactly. The point is that I can't test my potions on insects; it might have a different effect."

"True," she reasoned, "but, the smell?" She asked. "Wouldn't having a dead person in here all the time get..."

"I know. But theoretically, is it not the best thing to do?"

She nodded, "It makes perfect sense; I just don't know how... you're going to be able to do this, sir. I mean, it's one thing to get a corpse, but it's quite another to be sneaking into cemeteries and robbing graves."

He looked weary and nodded, "I suppose you should get to Care of Magical Creatures." He said, cleaning up his lab, not even bothering to test the putrid potion.

"Speaking of 'care', you should remember to feed Gaius. Once in a while should do it."

She moved to the owl cage and filled its bowl.

He knitted his eyebrows and looked at the corner. "Oh. Right."

Stroking the silky feathers of Gaius again, he hooted affectionately and nestled into a sleeping position. Hermione shut his cage and raised her eyebrows disapprovingly at him.

He looked at her a second longer before he just went back to his potion.

"I will see you tonight."

Hermione nodded and closed the door behind her.

"Hopefully like last night…"