Christmas passed very happily. Some people went to Hermione and apologised for their behaviour, and she was decidedly very gracious towards them, considering what they had done to her. But she still felt upset when she thought about one person – Snape. He avoided her at all costs, and she never got a chance to talk to him.

Although she was happy, she still felt uncomfortable to be touched by the people around her. Once, Ron tried to hug her from behind and she got into such a panic that she had stunned him before she realised who it was.

Things were going fairly smoothly. Hermione stayed in Gryffindor tower, but her friends from other houses came whenever she wanted them to and nobody minded. There was one person, in fact, that a lot of people liked. And many people felt that Will could take after the Weasley twins and enjoyed his presence. It took a long time to tell Will who the infamous Twins were, but when Ron, Harry and Hermione had finished, there was a gleam in Will's eyes that was very suspicious.

"Wow! They sound like amazing people! How can I get into contact with them?"

"I don't think that'll be a good idea." Phoebe said, gently, but menacingly, flicked her wand, breaking a nearby glass, effectively shutting him up.

From that day on, Will began to pull pranks here and there, co-ordinating with Peeves. He was never caught. His favourite victims were usually Filch, Mrs. Norris, and Snape, but he favoured no house. Even Hermione stumbled into one of his traps. Her hair was blue for the whole day! No one really minded, since a lot of his tricks were amusing to watch. It provided the school with a slightly cheerful atmosphere, with everyone on their toes anxiously wondering what will happen next.

One evening, Hermione decided to pluck up her courage and made her way to the dungeons. She did not know why she felt this urge to find the Potions Master, nor did she understand why she no longer felt any hatred towards him. Before she knew it, she had knocked on the door, and was in his office, sitting in one of the chairs, fidgeting with the hem of her robes.

Snape did not even look up from his marking and there was no sign that he actually noticed or acknowledged her presence. Hermione watched as his quill made elegant, but spiky letters on the top of the page, but cringed when she saw that the person had received a G. Looking closely, the whole three feet in parchment had tiny, familiar, scrawls in red, in comparison of the large handwriting that the student had used, obviously so that they could reach the minimum requirement without having to write too much. There were blotches of ink stains all over the parchment, and Hermione frowned. Why couldn't people just write a little neater?

"Miss Granger, although I have no doubt that you enjoy staring at my student's homework, have you come down for a reason other than to provide another source of annoyance?" Professor Snape said, glaring at her.

Hermione realised that he must have stopped writing for at least a whole minute and refrained from flushing in embarrassment. She did feel a little annoyed, herself, at the man's attitude. However, she became more irritated with herself when she couldn't think for the world why she wanted to come and speak to him. Her throat became parched and she felt like she was shrinking under his cool gaze. His face was devoid of any emotion. No sneer, no smirk. Hermione flinched when she remembered that day in the corridor. She sighed and wondered what would be the most tactful way to begin.

"Professor… I'm not sure why I came down here, specifically, but I suppose, as you can probably guess, the Gryffindor Know-It-All just wanted to satisfy her curiosity once again." Hermione started.

It betrayed her inner-anger at him, but it was better than showing him that she was just purely confused as to what she ought to say. Professor Snape did not say anything, surprisingly, and waited, but his eyes were narrowed dangerously at her.

"I wanted to know… that day… why did you walk away?" Hermione asked.

She knew the answer to it, but she just wanted to confirm her suspicions. Professor Snape sneered at her.

"Surely, a Know-It-All such as yourself will know the answer?"

"I don't go around presuming the reasons as to why other people act the way they do. I'm not that arrogant, Professor. And, I am not a 'Know-It-All', sir, I have never known everything, I only seek to know and learn as much as is available to me." Hermione sighed. "Plus, if I did 'know it all', I would have known who was framing me right from the start. I would… there's no point wondering what would have been. The hard fact is that I am not a Know-It-All, nor am I a Gryffindor."

Snape looked surprised.

"Denouncing your own house? What a change, Miss Granger." He said, sneering.

"No, Professor. I was a coward. I ran from my problems. I am a coward, who doesn't belong in Gryffindor. I'm an Emerald now, but I chose to live in Gryffindor so that I could preserve my life, thank you very much." Hermione huffed a little.

"Miss Granger, you call fighting against Death Eaters cowardly?" Snape said. "And then facing the Dark Lord, rape and torture, was just to preserve your life?"

His voice was sceptical. Hermione refrained from smirking.

"I was not about to leave two hundred people at the mercy of Death Eaters. It was pure chance that Ron decided to contact me and thereby resulting in my buying the crystals that warned me of the Death Eaters' presence. It was pure chance that we happened to choose that evening to break curfew. I had done what I thought was right to do. I was calm, while my companions were not, so I took charge. I did what I had to do. My life was forfeit anyway. The whole of Hogwarts was buzzing with the fact that I had betrayed Harry, so not only was I on the Death Eaters 'To Kill' list, I had the Order after my blood as well. I stood my ground because of my own curiosity to discover who framed me. I did nothing that counted as Gryffindor that night."

"But you did not run away." Snape said.

There was a very awkward silence. Snape was no longer looking at her, but rather, over her head. Hermione was staring at a silver object on the corner of the desk that resembled something that she would expect to find in Dumbledore's office.

"You see, Miss Granger, you are a Gryffindor."

"No, Professor, even the sorting hat said that my Gryffindor spirit was dead." Hermione cut in. "I am an Emerald, nothing more, nothing less. I am not Slytherin, but I am not Gryffindor either. I am just me. Will you answer my question, Professor?"

"Miss Granger, unlike you, I am a Slytherin. I am a vengeful person."

"So, you left me lying in the middle of the corridor, almost dead, because you were getting revenge." Hermione mused.

His face reddened in fury. She did not mean for her words to sound so insulting.

"I was not trying to patronise you, Professor. It simply makes sense."

Then, Hermione was struck by a thought.

"Professor?"

"What is it?" He snapped, harshly.

"I wanted to ask you for help."

"Miss Granger, I am at a loss as to how I can help you."

That was enough to tell Hermione that Snape was actually sorry for what he had done. Why should the person he left in the midst of her enemies to suffer want his help?

"I wanted advice.. about what I should do in the future." Hermione said.

"Miss Granger, you have come to the wrong place. I am not your Head of House, nor am I very interested in helping." Snape said.

Hermione was stung by his words, but smiled, almost to the point of breaking out into giggles. He watched her with an unreadable expression, but she could just see, lingering at the forefront of his mind, the suspicion of whether she had actually gone mad. Her eyes glittered with amusement – he thought that she would actually voluntarily go to seek out Professor McGonagall after the woman had betrayed her trust when she had needed it the most. How absurd.

"Professor, do you think that I will ever be able to trust Professor McGonagall or Professor Dumbledore, ever again?" Hermione laughed. "I can trust them to do their best to win this war, but I cannot trust them with personal matters any longer."

"I am still perplexed as to why you have come to me, of all the Professors." He ground out with teeth clenched.

"Professor, you reacted in exactly the way I would have expected you to react. Because someone has done you wrong, you want revenge. That is exactly what I have come to expect from most of the Slytherins. You did not know I was innocent, so I can understand why you reacted so vici--vociferously. Whereas I had expected support from my friends, I had expected support from Professor McGonagall. I had even believed the Professor Dumbledore would suddenly start smiling and say that it was all a very cruel joke. I have forgiven Harry and Ron, because, as rational people should, they thought it over, even though it took them a very long time," Hermione scowled. "they finally decided that they trusted in me, and did not think I would turn against them. Professor McGonagall never even gave it a second thought."

"You are incorrect in that assumption, Miss Granger, Professor McGonagall spent many meetings arguing your innocence."

That phrase lifted her heart somewhat, and she smiled at him once more, no, she beamed at him.

"Thank you Professor, I hadn't thought of that."

"Clearly." He responded curtly.

"You are the only one out of all of them who did not change their spots. Does that makes sense?" Hermione asked herself, before shaking her head clear and moving on. "I know that I can rely on you not to give me a false, pretty story because you are afraid that you would hurt my feelings. That is what all the other professors would do."

No acknowledgement. Professor Snape had returned to his all-time favourite of just staring blankly at Hermione and unnerving her greatly.

"So, uh- can you help me?" Hermione asked hopefully, losing her courage instantly.

No reply. Snape continued staring at her. Hermione started wondering whether she had spilt something over the front of her robes during dinner. As time passed by, Hermione began to panic. He wasn't even blinking! Was he actually still alive? Hermione stared at his chest and nearly breathed a sigh of relief when she saw it rise and fall steadily.

"What is it that you plan on doing, Miss Granger?" Professor Snape said, sighing in defeat and rubbing his eyes.

Hermione refrained from jumping up and hugging him.

"Well, you see, I'm not sure about that. Well, becoming an Auror would be fine, but a complete waste, in my opinion. The only time I would get to use my brain would be planning. I thought about Healing, that should be interesting, but I'm not sure. I've been thinking about taking an apprenticeship."

"An apprenticeship?" Snape said, surprised.

Hermione nodded.

"I did think of doing Transfiguration, but… I've changed my mind. Charms is a little too… easy? I don't know how to describe it. It's fun to do charms and invent them and stuff, but I want to do something more challenging. That leaves Arithmancy, Defence Against the Dark Arts, and Potions." Hermione sighed, trying to sort out her thoughts.

"Have you thought about doing a joint apprenticeship?" Snape asked.

"A joint apprenticeship?"

"Where you choose two subjects and one is your major and the other your minor. You would do both at the same time, although concentrating on your major subject, and you would earn a Mistress title for both, but when you are looking for a vocation, you will have to specify which one is a minor. Or, you could do two separate apprenticeships which you would have to do one after the other. Taking an apprenticeship is not an easy task, so most people only take one. If you choose to do Healing, you will have to become an apprentice, of sorts, anyway, for a period of time. Healing is a very gruelling careers path, as well, but also very popular for those seeking for an easier path than apprenticing to become recognised as an intelligent" Snape snorted. "being, but less dangerous than becoming an Auror."

Hermione nodded and absorbed the new information. Well, she could scratch being a Healer, he made it sound horrible, and being an Auror. She cringed, how was she going to tell Ron and Harry that the two options they would have been more supportive of had just been eliminated from her list, leaving apprenticeship. Potentially a Potions one as well. She was not sure if she wanted to master Defence Against the Dark Arts, it would be basically the same thing as Auror training. So, Arithmancy or Potions… or both?

"Thank you very much Professor. It's been a great help." Hermione said, nodding her head in respect as she stood up. "Sorry for taking up your time, sir."

Snape had already returned to his marking and grunted in response. Hermione smiled once more as she left.

"Good night, Professor."


Thank you to all of my readers! The numbers are starting to make sense now. But please, reviews will be welcomed at any time, even if it isn't my birthday quite yet. Thank you also to the readers who had read 'Escape from Reality' even though I did not receive much feedback. Any advice on how I can improve any of my stories will be most welcome.

I hope you enjoyed this chapter.

-- blossomed-angel --