A/N: WOW! Sorry it's been so terribly long! I can assure you, this story has not been abandoned! School just kinda killed me and I haven't been in the proper state of mind to continue here. But I am still working, never fear!

Okay, has anyone seen the movie Red Eye? If so, the whole thing with her scar and all that…TOTALLY similar to how this story is, it was SOOO weird! I was kinda freaked out.

Anywhoosits…on with the show!

Disclaimer: It's all…not mine. Bummer.

Chapter 7

"Will Hermione be wanting some tea or breakfast?"

Hermione could not even come close to comprehending the question, let alone answer it. She was staring in open-mouthed befuddlement at the place where Professor Snape had last stood before apparating. How on earth did he always know? Thoughts ran through her head, ideas of muggle secret-agent-esque methods of spying and eavesdropping on people. He could have bugged the room or set up a hidden camera or-

Hermione forced herself to be rational. Obviously muggle techniques of watching people were out of the question in this magic-rich environment. Which left only one option…he could read minds!

Again, Hermione slapped herself mentally. However he knew, he knew, and going insane trying to figure out how he knew was going to do no one any good.

"Erm…Miss?"

Hermione jumped, forgetting about the worried house-elf still in the room. "Yes?"

"Would you like me to bring you anything?"

"Oh! No, thank you. Why don't you go wash yourself up? I'll go do the same and by the time I'm done, Professor Snape will probably be back, after which I'll never see the light of day again, so really, what's one missed breakfast, right?"

Harmony gave her a weird look which Hermione interpreted as 'What on earth is she smokin'?' and scampered off, disappearing with her usual CRACK.

Hermione trundled up the stairs and disappeared in to her hidden room. She wearily stripped off her pajamas and climbed in to a long hot shower. When she was finished, she pulled on her warm fluffy purple robe and combed her thick bushy hair out. Having been awoken so abruptly at 5:47 earlier that morning, Hermione was still quite tired and so she climbed back in to bed and drifted off to sleep once more.

She woke up in what she estimated was about an hour. Figuring it was about time to get dressed, she opened the closet to find something suitable to wear. Having done that, she left the room and made her way downstairs, properly hungry this time, and figuring it was no use waiting until Snape got home, in case that should be hours.

To her shock, she found him sitting at the dining room table already, drinking a cup of tea and chewing thoughtfully on a muffin. He nodded in acknowledgement of her presence and gestured for her to take the seat opposite him. She watched him apprehensively as he seemed to take a painfully long time to finish said muffin. Finally he popped the last bit in to his mouth, swallowed, and looked up at her sternly, though not necessarily angrily, to Hermione's surprise.

"Do you know why, Miss Granger, I asked- told, actually- you not to enter my potions lab and personal study when you first arrived here?"

"Yes," she said carefully, waiting for the blow to come.

"Why was that?"

"You have important work you do not wish to be destroyed or damaged," she answered slowly, feeling very nervous under his piercing gaze.

"Wrong," he admonished her, "that is merely the underlying reason. The true reason is your safety. Wouldn't it be most unfortunate if you were to escape attacking Death Eaters, only to be blown apart two weeks later because you accidentally knocked a vial of phoenix tears in to a batch of Wolfesbane potion? Ingredients, potions, are easily replaced. You, on the other hand, have only one chance to make a fatal error and that's the end. Besides," he added as an afterthought, "Albus would be most annoyed at me, I suspect, if the famous Hermione Granger died in my house while I was running around with the likes of Death Eaters. Are we clear on the matter?"

"I- ye- yes!" Hermione stammered, shocked at the temporary civility affecting Snape's character.

"I am not a person accustomed to having guests in my house. Therefore, I have found little need to be extra careful in the way I secure whatever I happen to be working on, and there are times when it is impossible to try and store a potion in progress. Having said that," Snape continued, "I stress upon you once more that you should not take the open door as a sign you are welcome to enter. There are chemicals and ingredients in that room that could do such horrible things to you, you wouldn't sleep for a week if I described them. Understood?"

Hermione could do little more than nod.

s

Snape surprised Hermione further one day the next week. He approached her while she was sitting in the library reading her fourth book since she had arrived, not including those she had utilized for her homework, which she had entirely finished three days earlier.

"You are restless, Miss Granger, am I correct?"

"Oh…well, yeah, a little, I suppose," she responded in surprise.

"Very well. Come with me." He led her downstairs and, most shockingly of all, in to the potions laboratory. "Touch nothing unless instructed to do so, and that is the only warning you will receive before I change my mind about this." Hermione nodded shakily, deciding it was best not to talk either, until asked a question.

"To what extent are you familiar with the brewing of Wolfesbane, Miss Granger?"

"Not very familiar, Sir," she said. "I have never been able to find the recipe in any of the potions books at school, I presume it is in the restricted section. Only Professor Lupin has ever told me a little bit about what goes in to it and the effect it has on his symptoms."

Snape nodded. "I see. Well, I am presenting you with the opportunity to learn about the brewing of the potion, and I will not deny that the assistance would be a great help at the moment."

"I would love to!" she exclaimed.

"Yes, I surmised as much. Here is what is happening then: this potion takes some two months to brew properly. Because of the way the full moon falls during the next few months, I am forced to work on three different potions at different stages for the next few days. One is nearly complete and, after tomorrow, has only to simmer for 13 days. One is at the most important stage of brewing and will require my undivided attention for a few hours each day this week. One we will begin today. You understand so far?"

"Yes, sir," she nodded.

"After having witnessed your work in class for five years, I presume I can trust you to follow relatively basic instructions to begin the next potion? The first steps, everything needing to be done today, are nothing more complicated than we have ever done in class so I am sure you shall perform them admirably." He said this snidely, but Hermione sensed an underlying compliment.

He showed her to the cauldron set aside for the potion, the ingredients already set out for her, and handed her the book with the instructions for making the potion. She set to work, frowning with concentration. Hermione was suddenly nervous, making a potion that she knew was going to go to actual use, not just the stuff they concocted in class for a grade. What if she messed up? Professor Lupin wouldn't have his Wolfesbane potion for a full moon and then what would happen to him? Hermione shook her head to clear her thoughts, afraid she would mess up the more she worried about it.

She chopped five three-inch strands of unicorn hair, as instructed by the book, and threw them in to the potion, stirring twice clockwise and nine times counter-clockwise. The potion began to bubble lightly and she moved to lower the flame underneath the cauldron but as she did so, her arm collided with Snape's, who had done the same.

"Pardon me, sir," she snarled, annoyed at his interference with the potion she was working on.

"My my, Miss Granger, quite the temper you have, and I was merely trying to offer my assistance whilst awaiting the simmering of my potion."

"Yes, sir," she said distractedly, while grinding up some dragon's claw, "but imagine if I had done that to you. Somehow, I think I'd be getting off with a bit worse than a few snapped words."

Snape raised his hands in defeat, backed away to his own cauldron, and made a noise Hermione could have sworn was a quiet chuckle. Which, of course, nearly made her drop her stirring rod in to the cauldron. Which, of course, would have ruined the potion. Damn that man.

s

"How much do you know of time turners, Miss Granger?"

It was a few mornings later. Hermione and Snape had been sitting in silence eating breakfast. They had reached something of a truce over the last few days which involved, if nothing else, actually speaking to each other regularly.

"Oh- erm, quite a bit, to be perfectly honest," she was a little embarrassed, realizing that most of her professors never had known about her use of the time turner in her third year. "Why?"

"Based on your knowledge, what do you think would be the effect of time travel on a potion? Your most basic antidote, your most complicated truth serum, anything. Would it be changed in any way through use of a time turner?"

"Yes, it's a possibility," Hermione answered, forgetting any embarrassment and jumping in to answer. "Though it varies based on the strength of the chemical structure of whatever is traveling through time. We, as humans, are obviously not in danger of being restructured by time travel. However, something as volatile as, let's say, veritaserum, could face reorganization of the chemical bonds holding the liquid together and thus, changing the substance and it's effects altogether."

Snape stared at her incredulously. "How on earth could you know that? Time turners are relatively new inventions, and if there was any research on the matter ever done, I would have found it in the hours I have spent going over books and manuscripts over the course of the last week."

"Oh…well…I did some experiments on my own," Hermione said rather vaguely.

"With the use of an illegal time turner?" He raised his eyebrow questioningly.

"It was not illegal!" Hermione insisted indignantly. "Professor McGonagall received permission for me to use a time turner to get to all of my classes during my third year at Hogwarts!"

"And you just happened to use it for more…extracurricular…activities?" Snape smirked at her.

"Erm…yes, something like that."

"Amazing. Did you document any of your findings?"

"Oh, yes, of course!" Hermione responded. "I have a notebook full of the effects of the time turner on different substances. It's in my trunk."

Snape pondered her for a moment. "Very well. Retrieve it and meet me back down here. We have much to discuss."

s

A/N: Well, there it is…again, sorry for the horribly long wait..I know, it was what, 3 months? Hopefully now I'm back in the swing of things, I'll get them out slightly more quickly… ☺

This chapter was slightly shorter than I like to make them, but I figure you've waited long enough and this was a good stopping point…

Any ideas? Anything you disliked? Anything you loved? Don't really care? In any case, leave me a message and make me happy (which will inspire me to write faster)…

Oh yeah, and Goblet of Fire was great! If you haven't seen it yet…well, what's wrong with you?

Cheers!

Lexi