Many thanks for all of the reviews. So, now Deathly Hallows is out and all of the guesswork is over. My story is still pretty much HBP compliant, but not Deathly Hallows compliant, so there you have it. Anyway, I'm going to continue this story and see it through to the end.
WARNING: DEATHLY HALLOWS SPOILER IN THE AUTHOR'S NOTE AT THE END OF THIS CHAPTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Chapter Seven
Hermione could tell that Snape was seriously considering strangling the boy in front of him. For his part Martin wasn't helping any; the cowed and apologetic expression he was attempting to pull off did little to mask his pleasure at having upset the professor this much. The longer Snape insulted and berated the boy, the happier he was and the angrier Snape became. Considering the eleven year old was a child, a Gryffindor, and a fairly clever person, Hermione decided to intervene and save the ungrateful boy's neck. Feigning clumsiness, Hermione casually knocked over a vial of worm mucus from a nearby Slytherin boy's desk.
"Miss Granger, try to reign in your clumsiness!" Snape barked out at the sound of shattering glass.
"Forgive me, sir, I felt a bit light headed for a moment," Hermione lied with quick dexterity. "I'll clean it up."
Much to her surprise, Snape actually looked concerned. "No need, Granger," he muttered quietly, brows furrowed in worry. "You should sit down. Crawten, mop that up immediately before it hardens," he ordered the Slytherin boy who's desk the vial had come from. "Miss Granger, do you need to visit the Hospital Wing?"
His surprising concern actually made Hermione feel guilty at having lied. "No sir, really, I feel much better now. It was just some momentary dizziness, nothing to worry about." She smiled thinly, trying to look reassuring. At her feet Crawten was dragging a damp rag across her mess, scowling at the mucus.
Snape nodded brusquely and the class continued. The first years now cast fascinated glances at Hermione and furtive ones at Snape, trying to decipher what this exchange could have meant.
For the life of her, Hermione had no idea what it had meant either. It was the end of February now and, after working together for about a month and a half, she and Snape had developed a civil and very orderly working arrangement. They mostly kept out of one another's and, when they were forced to interact, always did so with the utmost courtesy and respect. Snape never bothered to ask after her health or the weather or how she was feeling or anything even resembling small talk, and Hermione did him the favor of doing the same. This new care for her well-being was a bit unsettling.
By the end of the lesson the first years had lost interest in Hermione and Snape and had completed their potions, most of them successfully. Snape had returned to his usual scowl and had spent the rest of the class berating the Gryffindors and removing house points. Hermione pushed the matter to the back of her mind, deciding that whatever it had meant couldn't be important enough to ask about.
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Severus' scowl was not merely a reflection for his complete disdain of the first year Gryffindors. Inwardly he was cursing himself for the way he had acted. What concern was it of his if the foolish Granger girl wasn't taking proper care of herself and had grown lightheaded? And what could have possessed him to treat act as though he cared, and in front of a group of eleven year olds no less!
It had been a week since his strange dream and Severus still had no idea what to think of it. His original opinion of the dream had been that it was odd, but easily ignored: dreams were always utter nonsense anyway. Severus was not one of those foolish wizards who prescribed to divination as an actual, credible source of information. However there had been something striking about that particular dream, and something that felt alarmingly real about it. And at any rate, the fact that he had been dreaming about Hermione Granger was disturbing in and of itself.
Since the dream Severus had found himself giving her sidelong glances, trying to figure out what drove his subconscious to bring her to his attention. Catching himself looking at the girl, Severus grew irritable and moodier than usual, angry at both himself and the young witch.
As Severus looked over to where Granger was now tidying up after the mess the first years had left behind he cursed himself and stood up from his desk where he had been sorting through the homework he had collected at the start of the class.
"That will do, Granger," Severus told her curtly. "Leave the house-elves with something to do, will you? And shouldn't you maybe sit down every now and then? All this standing can't be good for one in...your position." Somehow he made the idea of pregnancy into an insult just for her.
Stiffening with insulted Gryffindor pride, Hermione nodded brusquely and swept out of the classroom without a word, managing to mimic Severus' trademark swirling robes with considerable success.
"I really am training a passable replacement," Severus murmured to himself with great irony.
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Hermione marched out of the dungeons, slightly irritated with Snape's imperious tone and the implication that her pregnancy was some kind of debilitation. Cradling her stomach, Hermione made her way towards the kitchens. The house-elves were always able to procure whatever Hermione might be craving. Tonight it was cookie dough, lots and lots of cookie dough. Now somewhat excited, Hermione made her way to the kitchen.
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At the kitchen Hermione got caught up talking to Dobby: it seemed her remembered her as Harry Potter's friend and wanted someone to reminisce about the good old days with. Dobby also seemed to feel that the more treats he gave to Hermione the better. So, when Hermione left the kitchen much later she was in a very good mood and was carrying extra cookie dough for later. As she passed the lab on her way back to her own room she thought she heard someone talking. Creeping towards the cracked door, careful to move as silently as possible, Hermione pressed her ear to the space between the door and it's frame and listened. At first she had thought it might be Snape speaking to someone, but as it turned out it was merely Snape speaking to himself.
"Foolish old bastard of a man," he muttered furiously as he paced back and forth around a gently steaming cauldron. "Do this Severus, do that Severus...as if I'd never had anything better to do than obey the mad whims of an old crackpot!" Watching from the crack in the door, Hermione bit her lip, chewing it thoughtfully as she watched the irate potions master. "Of all the damned things to ask a man to do...but I did it, didn't I? I did as I was told, just like any other stupid pawn."
He grew quieter in his muttering, and Hermione thought that she heard him speak her own name. Leaning closer to decipher his words she accidently pressed the door, making it creak slightly. Snape immediately froze and stopped speaking, whirling around with his wand drawn to look at the door. Slowly, carefully, he began to approach the door, and Hermione who stood behind it. Silently cursing herself, Hermione backed away from the lab and raced back to her own rooms. The lab was only a few feet down the hall from her own set of rooms, so Hermione managed to make it into her room and lock the door by the time that Snape had roughly jerked open the lab door, finding no one behind it.
Back in her sitting room, leaning against the door with her heart racing at almost having been hexed by Severus Snape, Hermione could only gaze at the fire before her in bewilderment.
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The next morning at breakfast, Hermione carefully watched Snape from beneath her eyelashes. He looked normal enough, sitting next to McGonagle, eating little and speaking only when spoken to. He didn't look like a man who would lock himself in a deserted laboratory and talk to himself. But it seemed that he was such a man. Whatever was wrong with Snape, Hermione felt a strange innate desire to help him. Or, at the very least, find out if his problems could jeopardize her own position as his assistant. But so far she could detect nothing wrong.
Snape finished his breakfast, still doing nothing noteworthy, and he proceeded to the classroom and his lessons, still doing nothing out of the ordinary. Throughout the day Snape continued on the business of Potions Master without doing anything strange of unexpected. Hermione knew this because she spent the entire day watching him out of the corners of her eyes. As the two of them tidied up the classroom at the end of the last class of the day, Snape finally lost his patience with her spying.
"Ms. Granger, if there is something on my face, will you please let me know? If not, could you kindly stop your incessant staring?" Snape snapped as he shoved a chair into it's rightful place behind a desk. "I know that you've been peering at me all day, and I'm just wondering if there were any particular reason why?"
Hermione blushed, embarrassed at having been caught. She had thought she was being more discreet than that. "I was just wondering, sir," she began awkwardly. "If there were anything wrong. Maybe if there were anything you might need to talk about?"
Snape regarded her coolly, icy gaze slowly moving up and down her entire body, making her blush even redder. "No, Ms. Granger, nothing is wrong. While you're concern..." he sneered at this. "...touches me, if I did have some sort of problem, I can assure you that you would be the last person I would wish to speak with about it." With that he turned crisply on his heel and, with a swirl of his black robes, left the classroom.
"That went well," Hermione muttered under her voice, feeling like a complete idiot.
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So, Severus thought to himself. Granger cared about his well-being. That was distinctly odd. He had to admit to himself, in the privacy of his own thoughts, that the idea of another human being actually caring about what befell him felt rather nice. Even if that other human being did happen to be an irritating, know-it-all witch with more books that common sense and an ever-growing pregnant belly. Even a foolish girl half his age was better than no one at all.
And Severus had berated her, shamed her for her concern. Returned her regard with nothing but disdain. Well, that had ever been Severus' way, hadn't it? Back in school when Lily Evans... Lily Potter... He had never been particularly skilled at accepting any kindness, from any source, no matter how guileless and open-handed.
Severus chewed his dinner without tasting it. His sharp comments to Granger had been more reflex than anything else, an automatic response brought forth by the surprise of Granger's kindness. Now it was his turn to glance at her from the corners of his eyes and out from beneath heavy-hooded lids. He, at least, was a great-deal more adept at observing others without alerting them to what he was doing.
Granger appeared only marginally affected by his flat-out rejection of her earlier, and was eating her meal with an extremely healthy appetite. Severus, rolling his eyes to himself, wished he could be half as enthusiastic about anything as Hermione Granger appeared to be about food. He doubted it was possible. The girl dug into a highly piled plate, cheeks pink with enjoyment of her meal as she chattered cheerfully with Professor Flitwick. Occasionally she would accidentally cast a casual glance in Severus' direction, and then her pink cheeks would flush to a darker shade in remembered embarrassment. But aside from those brief, uncomfortable moments she seemed fine.
Severus only wished that he could feel fine as well.
TBC...
No preview because I don't have anything written for the next chapter yet. I didn't have one last chapter either, but you'll all just have to deal with it!!! Anywho, sorry this chapter's short. I had trouble even writing this much. Oh well.
SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT!
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RIP Severus Snape. You have been extremely well-loved :'(
