For once, Severus was grateful for the lack of forethought and impulsiveness that was the trademark of Gryffindors. Had Hermione been a true Slytherin, figuring out what she thought of him would have been a lengthy dance. Honestly, he wasn't getting any younger and the data was available to him. Now, what to do with the data. She blushed at him and had eye contact issues at times. She kissed him. She invited him to dinner and the conversation flowed freely as if they were old friends. Well, eventually it flowed, at first he had to get over the shock of being with one of the most intelligent women in the wizarding world. And although not strikingly gorgeous, she was beautiful. She was so animated and alive and intriguing. Don't forget only semi-available, 1,500 miles away in a different time zone. Hermione was a career girl and she had an opportunity to turn things around at Durmstrang. She probably wouldn't allow a socially awkward potions master who was 19 years her senior to interfere with her Great Work. Severus reclined on the sofa and propped his long legs up the corner wall. 'Hermione Granger, what have you done to me? I did not retain a single thing you said in class apart from the dinner invitation. I'm losing my edge.' He closed his eyes and let his mind churn out some plan for tomorrow's class and dinner appointment. Honestly, who in their right mind would consider accompanying him anywhere in public multiple times? Class tomorrow would be challenging but he had to be more attentive. Swotty girl may ask him questions about evaluating her teaching techniques or some rubbish. He slid his feet down the wall and rose from the sofa to have some chamomile before bed. He was exhausted and he needed to add 'relaxed' to his mood. He pulled his brown betty out of the cupboard and steeped the flowers Muggle-style. Some things could not be improved upon, and the brown betty was one of them. He pushed down some floating blossoms with a stirring rod and instinctively made three turns anti-clockwise and three turns clockwise. Placing the rod in the sink, he opened a drawer for the sieve. As he poured his tea, he contemplated his next move.
Hermione waltzed into her mother's kitchen and plopped down her rucksack. She mentally replayed the evening in her mind, thinking how interesting her potions professor had become since he wasn't taking house points and assigning detentions. Although Durmstrang didn't have houses or any competition like that, Hermione did have to assign her own share of detentions and had to admit that it did work to be extremely punitive early on with her classes. Long ago she realized that potions classes could have killed them all, especially once she saw the curriculum at Durmstrang was not advanced as what they learned at Hogwarts. Truth be told, Snape's classes could take their N.E.W.T. levels by the end of fifth year. She giggled at the thought of Severus in a black jumper. Jumpers do not billow. But he did look interesting. Was this some girl crush she never knew existed or was the thought of someone who knew big words intoxicating her and impairing her judgment? Tomorrow they would finish the class, usually she planned a group project but considering that he probably didn't do groups, she altered the plan just a bit and planned some questions for the class at the end to discuss. She took her outline and made up 30 or so random questions for the class to use as conversation starters with their own groups. She transfigured a cup into a little blue gift box with a fitted lid and placed the questions on separate parchments inside. She made the shrinking spell and placed it in the outside pocket of her rucksack.
Hermione spoke to the class in clipped tones, she was nervous for her departure from the usual outline and hoped her returning students did not complain too awfully much.
"I have a warmup activity that I usually do with my students the first day of class and although it may seem a bit trite to create this artificial environment to get them talking, this works. I picked it up in a team building class in New York, and you're lucky I'm not making you do a group activity in its stead."
"Here is a box with 30 questions in it. I know there are more than that here, but this demonstration will give you an idea," said Hermione as she resized her blue box. "I will select a few of you to show how this may work. For now, I will pretend you are my new firsties and act just as I do with my own students. Try to stay in character so we can get the full effect."
Hermione pointed to a very young looking teacher and beckoned her to the front of the room. "Please tell us your name, where you are teaching and select a card."
The slight looking blonde stepped forward. "My name is Celeste Marnier and I teach Charms at Beauxbatons." Well Dorothy, I don't think we're in Cannes anymore… Hermione thought to herself. "Take a card," Hermione suggested.
"Have you ever stayed up past midnight doing homework?" Celeste read from the card.
"Remember you are a first year," Hermione prompted.
"Mai oui, yes I have, Madame Granger."
"Thank you Miss Marnier."
As they went around the room, it was discovered that John Sorrell had never eaten sushi, nor did he know what it was. Marta Cabrini had surprisingly been in a fistfight and Marcus Lang had pretended to be sick to skive off school once. Vincent Durand was not going admit whether or not he had served detention in school.
When Severus had his turn, he snapped his slip of parchment open. "If you could be an animal, which would you be?" He snorted and tersely replied, "I am an animal." Definitely staying in character, he is, Hermione thought. She blushed the spectrum of red and passed the box to the next student, who had never scored a point in an organized sport.
After the papers were exhausted, Hermione reminded the class that when they did this with their own students, the questions had to point to the fact that there are some experiences, apart from the sushi, that any of the students can relate to for common ground. "We are more alike than you can imagine, and this is one example of how to demonstrate this to the students. Usually I make the demonstration of a group activity as well but the instructions are in your class materials and that should do. Just remember, prejudice is born of ignorance and when they know more about each other, a lot changes."
Hermione spent the rest of the time relating actual experiences she heard from previous class groups, and from her own classes. She stopped early to fill out the administrative paperwork for various schools requiring the certifications and as the last of the attendees filed out the door, she saw Severus sitting on a bench in the back of the room.
"You are an animal, are you?" Hermione commented. "Let's see what we are going to do about feeding time, shall we?" She grabbed her rucksack, and Severus followed her to the hotel lobby to see where the evening would lead.
