Hello everyone! I'm so sorry for the delay but I greatly underestimated the work and grading I had to do during these last few weeks. The end of the school year is near where I am and I have a lot of things to manage. Again, very sorry for not posting a chapter earlier.
I am not completely satisfied with what I wrote but as you waited long enough, here it is!
Enjoy!
Chapter 7: Brewing potions
After his unfortunate eavesdropping of the "conversation" between Potter, Granger and the Weasley present, Severus had wanted to go to his chamber but once he had arrived in front of the stairs leading to it he had had to acknowledge the fact that he was still too weak for this kind of effort.
And so that is why he found himself opening the door of the small library of Grimmauld place. With difficulty he moved to his favourite armchair while trying to not stumble.
He sat and closed his eyes. He remembered what had just happened.
He had gone to the greenhouse to sit and relax. And so when he had felt someone putting a hand on his shoulder he had briefly been startled. But as soon as the hand had come in contact with his tense muscle a wave of patchouli sent had hit his nose. That and the delicateness of the touch and he had known that it was his former student: Hermione Granger. Luckily for him. He did not want anyone to see him so weak. But if he had had to pick someone to be the witness of his moment of weakness she would have certainly been part of the selected few. He had come to appreciate her presence during the last few days. And better her than Mad-Eye, Shacklebot or even worse, Potter.
He had been in terrible pain. The gashes were not the worse. It was the spasms. It was as if all of his muscles contracted at once. It was painful and tiring. That is why even after Granger's ministrations he still felt not quite alright.
He had been grateful for her kindness. She had been very professional doing exactly what she had to do. And for once, he did not feel the animosity Pomfrey sometimes reeked. Not that Poppy was a bad nurse but understandably it was sometimes hard for her to distinguish the deeds of the Death Eaters from his work as a spy.
He had also not felt the pity he sometimes saw in McGonagall's eyes for example. From the little he had seen through his semi-closed eyelashes, he had seen concern. And concern was not something he often experienced in the looks of the people he encountered. So he had let Granger do her work.
Once finished, she had left. And for the first time in a very long time, he had thanked someone.
He had taken a few minutes for himself to recover. He had maybe slept a few minutes. Severus did not know who had hit him with this damn curse but the wizard was powerful. It would be several days before he would recover completely.
After his very short nap, Severus had left the greenhouse. What he had not expected was to stumble across a very upset Granger defending him in front of her friends. And he did not know why – his pride certainly – but he had not liked it at all. How could she speak for him like that? Who was she to defend him?
So he had stood there until she left the room and bumped into him. Granger had then looked at him and seeing her innocence and concern again, he had left. He could not bear that. He was not to be defended. Severus was a grown man and she was just a child.
Sitting in his armchair in the library, Severus started to wonder if he had not been vexed for nothing. But at the same time, he had never needed someone and that would never be the case. He did not want his former student to act with him as if he was the latest fashionable cause to defend. And he did not care of the mortified look he had seen on Granger's face the moment she realised he had heard everything. He would not apologize for eavesdropping or leaving. There was nothing to apologize for.
And on that thought, he fell asleep in his armchair, exhausted and still aching too much to try to climb the stairs to his room.
It was only a couple of days later before they both met again. It was late in the evening and Severus was once again in the library. These last few days had been tiring and a good old Muggle novel was the best remedy.
He had been there for an hour already when the door creaked open. Severus' first reaction was to sigh. He just wanted to be left alone.
The door opened a bit more and a shy Hermione Granger came in the room. She must have suspected that he would be here because she scanned the room before closing the door. When she saw him she made a weak smile in his direction.
Severus was in no mood to speak and surely the girl wanted to talk to him about what had happened in the greenhouse and after. So he looked at her when she made her way to one of the bookshelves close to him. She faced it and scanned the different leather bound spines. He was sure she would then turn around to talk to him. But when she grabbed a book and went to sit comfortably in the sofa facing the fireplace he was definitely surprised.
He was usually very good at reading people's mind and behaviour but Granger was another matter. She was not what he expected her to be. She never acted as she should according to his standards.
After several minutes spent in silence, Severus gave up. Hermione Granger was not going to talk to him and seemed to have just come to read a book – they were in the library after all. And therefore he resumed his reading.
A couple of hours later, as Severus was starting to lose focus on what he was reading and was on the verge of drifting to sleep right here in his armchair, Granger rose from the sofa, put the book back on its bookshelf and left.
"Good night," she said shyly as she closed the door.
And the scene repeated itself during the next fortnight. Both were avid readers and considered the library a heaven in these dark times. No words were exchanged. Just the usual "good night" from Hermione.
Hermione liked these quiet moments and she did not mind the presence of Snape in the room. She even found it reassuring. As for Severus, he would never admit it but he did not really mind her presence either. He did not enjoy but she was a quiet companion and that suited him.
It was now mid-august and the temperature was unnaturally hot. During the night the temperature did not cool enough for Hermione to sleep comfortably. So after turning and tossing in her bed for about two hours, she decided that she should better get out of bed. Sleep was not going to come soon. Of course, she could have used a cooling charm but she did not really like the sensation.
Thus she decided to go to the kitchen to drink a cup of tea. It is common knowledge that when it is too hot, a hot beverage is the best.
On her way down to the kitchen, she passed in front of the bedrooms of some of her former classmates. And she heard them snoring. How she wished to be able to sleep as easily as they did.
Once she arrived to the kitchen, she put the kettle on and waited.
She had been there for a few weeks now. The change of environment had been hard at first but then Hermione had adapted to it. It was nice to have your friends so close. The assignment given by Dumbledore occupied her mind. And she was still going to St Mungo's every day for her apprenticeship.
Yet, now that she had fallen into a kind of routine, juggling between all of her obligations, she was becoming tired of her new life. She wanted some space. She wanted to eat dinner whenever she wanted for example. She wanted to sit in the garden in silence without someone coming and talking to her. She knew that she was a bit childish. She hated being under so much stress.
When the water was hot, Hermione poured it in her cup and waited for the tea to infuse.
As she waited, she looked outside. The moon was bright. And a trained eye could see the faint shimmer the beams of the moon produced on the hidden greenhouse.
How Hermione loved this place. She loved working there. Sometimes she even wondered why she did not follow Neville Longbottom's path and went to study Herbology and Botany.
As she was watching outside, she suddenly had a weird sensation. As if there was a fire burning in her back. She had already felt this many times during the past weeks. And she knew what it meant. Severus Snape was watching her, probably standing in the doorway. Every time he was near, she felt it. She did not know how but she felt it. It was a weird sensation that she had never felt before with anyone else. She would have to investigate it later, now she did not have the time.
Professor Snape had not talked to her once since the incident in the greenhouse and what had followed after.
She sighed, a bit desperate at the reaction of the man. She waved her wand in the direction of the kettle in order to keep the water warm enough if he ever wanted to drink a cup of tea and she left the room. When she passed by him in the doorway, she greeted him good night but he gave her no answer. She once again felt this distinctive warmth that was characteristic of him as she brushed past him. And she knew deep inside that it was only his pride which prevented him to acknowledge her and that he had noticed her nice gesture with the kettle.
Severus closed his eyes as Granger's shoulder grazed his side. He hated what was happening. He hated this warmth. He hated to smell her perfume. He hated her kind gestures. Who did she think she was, provoking all that?
But despite this growing anger inside of him, Severus directed himself to the table to make himself a cup of tea.
The next day found Severus in the greenhouse, once again working on a potion. He had gathered all the ingredients he wanted.
The potion he was working on was made for Lupin and was complementary to the Wolfsbane. After some research and discussions with the werewolf, he had discovered that the change of form provoked different kinds of pains in Lupin's muscles during the days following the transformation and that with the age his tendons and joints ached more and more.
But for chopping the ingredients correctly for this potion, Severus needed a specific knife. He needed a knife that was made of silver and forged by Goblins. And unfortunately he could not find it. He was sure to have brought it with him from the potions lab but he could not find it. He was looking everywhere. What was happening to him?
Hermione had arrived a few minutes earlier and was observing him. She found herself doing that more and more often. The professor that she had always considered as nothing else than a professor was now a man to her eyes.
She had noticed that he preferred to work wearing only a white shirt. And he always rolled up his sleeves a bit. It was nice to see him working. Hermione admired him. She did not only enjoy the look of him. Most of all, she learned. Watching him work was the best way to learn the art of potions. And she did not know why he did not use this method when in Hogwarts. He was very precise in his movement. Always calm. Always confident
But today was different, he was looking for his knife. It was so unlike him to lose something as he always neatly put his things in order. Hermione smiled. Severus Snape was a man like any other man. He was not only the difficult professor she had known back at Hogwarts. He was a passionate man when it came to potions. He was a brave man for being a spy. He could feel pain. He had a temper. He could be nice – he accepted her in his greenhouse after all. And he could be a scatterbrain sometimes.
Hermione rose from her seat and went to the workbench where the knife was, hidden behind a jar containing a very suspicious liquid she did not want to know about. She took it and put it on the table in front of the dark man. Then she went back to her seat to read her book, still smiling.
When Severus registered what had just happened, he stopped moving. What was happening to him? It was not him to be so absent-minded or not observant. He did not know if this state was because of her presence or because he was tired of all the Death Eater or Order meetings. Surely it was because of her he thought. She was the one who disturbed him surely.
He waited a couple of minutes before looking in her direction. She was a strange woman. Why did she come to the greenhouse or the library when he was already there? Why did she not leave? They were questions that Severus could not answer. He had never been close to anyone since Lily. It was something strange to share his space with someone else.
Severus took some minutes to observe her. It was fascinating to see how quickly she could become engrossed in a book. She was reading and it was as if the world around her did not exist anymore. The proof was that the pens she had brought with her to take notes were floating in front of her. He had noticed that whenever she read or was enthusiast about something, she involuntarily made things float around her. One day, he would have to talk to her. But not today. He had a potion to brew and she was distracting him!
After lunch, Severus went back to the greenhouse to continue working on his potion but Hermione did not follow him. She had decided to spend some times with her friends. It was Sunday and everybody was at home.
They were laughing about a joke one of the twins said when Dumbledore appeared in the doorway of the small living-room.
"Hello everyone!"
Everyone greeted the old wizard back
"May I speak to Miss Granger?" Dumbledore asked.
"Of course Sir," Hermione answered while rising from her armchair.
Dumbledore smiled and left the room. Hermione followed him to the kitchen.
She did not know why, but the kitchen always seemed to be the perfect place for serious conversations. And she felt that it was going to be one of them.
Dumbledore conjured two cups of steaming tea which came out of nowhere and sat down in one of the chair. He made a gesture for Hermione to take the seat opposite to him. She sat down.
"Miss Granger, I know that you have a lot to do." Dumbledore said and Hermione nodded. "I have asked a lot from you already. With your apprenticeship in St Mungo's and the research I asked you to do, I imagine that you have busy days."
"Very busy indeed." She agreed.
"I know that what I am going to ask you will make your days and weeks even busier but it is essential."
Hermione worried a little but nodded to the Headmaster's sentence.
"I want you to help Professor Snape on the potions for Hogwarts' infirmary. The infirmary needs to be supplied with fresh potions before the start of the new school year in a few days. As you know Professor Snape has other obligations which are more and more demanding and more urgent than the infirmary." Dumbledore said.
"But Sir…" Hermione started.
"Miss Granger. I know that I am asking a lot but it is important. And it will only be for a few days. The new year is starting soon and Professor will be less summoned after this date."
"But Sir, surely, there are people more qualified to help Professor Snape."
It is not that she did not want to help Snape but her research and her apprenticeship took a lot of her time already and this new assignment felt like an overwhelming task to do.
"You are qualified Miss Granger. Don't underestimate you." Dumbledore answered with a smile. "You are a very good apprentice from what I heard in St Mungo's and you were one of the brightest witches Hogwarts has ever known."
To that Hermione blushed a little. But as soon as she registered his words, she felt her anger rise again. It was the typical Dumbledore's method to make you do what he wanted. He praised you to make you do whatever he had imagined.
"But…"
"No but Miss Granger. We do not want Professor Snape to make a mistake in his job as a spy because he was tired of spending the night brewing a potion against stomach aches for Poppy, don't we?" He said with a twinkle in his eyes.
Hermione shook her head. He had a point.
"Good" he said as he stood up.
Dumbledore went to the door and stopped when he passed next to Hermione. She had not move and was looking at the window, tired at the thought of all the work she will have to do during the following weeks.
"I let you explain your new assignment to our Potions professor, right?" Dumbledore said.
And without waiting for an answer or an acknowledgement from Hermione, Dumbledore left.
N/A: It's not an eventful chapter and not one of the bests but did you like it? And also, as I am not an English speaker, if you see a mistake tell me. Same for any constructive criticism.
