- i dont own anything and make no money.

Chapter 10: Hot Chocolate, a handkerchief and a book

*"I didn't put it in!" said Harry, grinning broadly. He slipped his hand inside his jacket pocket and drew out the tiny bottle that Hermione had seen in his hand that morning. It was full of golden potion and the cork was still tightly sealed with wax. "I wanted Ron to think I'd done it, so I faked it when I knew you were looking." He looked at Ron. "You saved everything because you felt lucky. You did it all yourself."
He pocketed the potion again.
"There really wasn't anything in my pumpkin juice?" Ron said, astounded. "But the weather's good... and Vaisey couldn't play... I honestly haven't been given lucky potion?"
Harry shook his head. Ron gaped at him for a moment, then rounded on Hermione, imitating her voice.
"You added Felix Felicis to Ron's juice this morning, that's why he saved everything! See! I can save goals without help, Hermione!"
"I never said you couldn't - Ron, you thought you'd been given it too!"
But Ron had already strode past her out of the door with his broomstick over his shoulder.
"Er," said Harry into the sudden silence; he had not expected his plan to backfire like this, "shall... shall we go up to the party, then?"
"You go!" said Hermione, blinking back tears.
"I'm sick of Ron at the moment, I don't know what I'm supposed to have done..."*

'Harry told me you were the one to help Katie Bell, Sir.'

Hermione said, as she sat down. Snape didn't look up but finished writing for a moment before he laid down his quill and regarded her with one eyebrow raised.

She was starting to think of that as the Snape is curious but doesn't want anyone to know look.

'Dumbledore told him that you were the one to stop the curse before she was sent to St. Mungo's.'

'Dumbledore told him?' He asked.

'In their lesson, Harry was… perplexed… that you, rather than Madame Pomfrey, helped Katie. '

'Poppy's talents don't lie in the dark arts.' He murmured, almost absentmindedly. He was looking intently at Hermione.

'Mr. Potter tells you about his lessons with the headmaster?'

'Yes, Dumbledore said it was ok.' She said.

Snape looked down at his desk for a moment.

'I see.'

Hermione didn't know how to respond. She could sense that something had happened, something was bothering him but she felt at a loss. There had been something behind his eyes, briefly she had seen something like pain or vulnerability.

'Er, anyways, Professor. Thank you. For your help with Katie I mean. We were there- Harry, Ron and I and it looked awful. It was just terrible to see it. She was in a lot of pain.'

'A curse usually isn't pleasant Miss Granger.' He said ironically.

'I know, sir. I, um, well I did some research at the start of term about curses. Some can strengthen over time and get worse, even if you can contain them.'

Snape was quiet as he regarded her.

'You did research on curses?'

She nodded.

'That seems like a rather obscure subject to research.'

'Sir, I was pretty sure I was seeing an example of a curse- the kind that get stronger and the kind that you can't fully contain forever. I-'

He held up a hand.

'Miss Granger, this isn't something I can discuss.' His face was implacable and his eyes were wide.

He stood up and looked down at her. Definitely cutting off their conversation.

Hermione made a mental note to think about Snape's reaction at another time. She was pretty sure he knew she was referring to Dumbledore's hand. Why couldn't he discuss it with her? What had cursed Dumbledore and more importantly, could it be contained? Could it be cured? The little bit of research she had done didn't say much about possible cures. What did it mean if Dumbledore had an incurable curse upon himself?

'We have a lesson I believe.' He said, moving around the desk to sit in his usual seat, she turned her chair to face him. This was their usual occlumency set up and one she was becoming familiar with.

'I want to focus on hiding a specific memory.'He said.

'Chances are that you will not need to do this – it is only useful when you want to occlude something without someone knowing that you are occluding.'

'Is that what you –'she started to ask and then stopped, looking at him warily.

'It's what I have to do when I report to the Dark Lord.' He said, guessing her question.

She nodded, 'How do I do it?'

'You have to hide the memory within another, innocuous memory. Find something insignificant to keep it hidden within. The person who is looking won't know to dig deeper if you hide it correctly.'

Hermione was confused by this.

'What do you mean? How do I hide a memory in another?'

Snape traced his lips with his fingers for a moment.

'I think I had better show you… you will cast legilimens on me and I will show you how I hide a memory and layer it in another.'

He stood up and walked to the cupboard behind his desk. He quickly and efficiently stuck his wand to his temple and removed a few silvery strands before he came back to his seat.

'Now, Granger. Here is what you will do. You know the incantation – here is the proper wand movement.' He demonstrated.

'While you do that, look into my eyes and imagine moving deeper and deeper into them – I tend to focus on a person's pupils as an entry point. This will be difficult and take some effort at first, but I can push the right images forward for you. It should be enough for our purposes.'

Hermione bit her lip nervously.

'Ok, sir. What will it be like? Is it the same as when you cast on me- the way we shuffle through my memories?'

'You will be unable to shuffle through my memories Granger, you will only view what I show you and you will not attempt anything else. 'He said this with a slight edge to his voice and was clearly issuing a command.

'However, when someone casts legilimens, they are exposed to the emotions that are part of each memory. They are given a unique insight into the person's mind they are entering, as all memories are strongly tied to the emotions.'

Hermione took a deep breath as she thought of what he said… it seemed weirdly intimate to think about feeling her professor's emotions.

'Ok, sir, I'll give it a try.'

She looked at him directly in the eyes and cast the spell…

It was like falling into a dark tunnel. Nothing was discernable but she saw images, flashing in the corners of her eyes, they were fleeting as were the small spikes of emotions she was experiencing- almost imperceptibly brief, she felt anger and sadness, satisfaction, humor and despair before she landed somewhere that seemed solid. The journey down the tunnel stopped and she had arrived at the memory of his choice. It was a simple memory, one of him flying, soaring quickly around and over the quidditch pitch. Hooch was flying with him while McGonagall, Flitwick and Lupin stood below and watched. Hermione felt glee, she could almost feel him having fun as the wind whipped his hair and he swooped into a dive. Abruptly the memory ended and Hermione was pulled away from the quidditch pitch. Snape stood before her holding what looked like a glass sphere, it was small - no bigger than the palm of his hand and she could see that he had contained the memory within the sphere. They were standing in his office now and he walked to the desk and placed the glass sphere into the desk drawer. As soon as the sphere was in the drawer, those emotions of glee and happiness were gone. She felt something push her…

…And she was out of his mind. She blinked as she looked at him, trying to get accustomed to the sensations she had felt. She looked around, the office in his memory has been subtly different, the chairs arranged a bit differently and the colors, the dark woods and rich browns had all seemed more vibrant in his memory.

'Wow.' She said quietly.

'Indeed.' He said dryly.

'Now, Granger. In order to truly hide the memory, I would focus on a memory of something that had taken place in my office. Something innocuous and unimportant. The real memory that I was trying to hide is hidden behind the one taking place in my office because it's been contained in the drawer. It is hiding the memory in plain sight. That way if any of the emotions of that memory escape- they can be attributed to the memory layered over it.'

'Sir, your memory, with the broom and Professor Lupin… was that Harry's firebolt?'

'We were all taking turns… testing it… for curses.' He said. His voice was deadpan but Hermione thought she saw something of a smirk in his eyes.

'If I remember, it was quite a while before Harry got it back. McGonagall said something about stripping it and testing each branch.'

'Ah yes, that may have been the case, or a few simple revelio spells could have made it clear that the broom was safe.' He said.

Hermione smiled. She remembered the gleeful, happy emotions she had been privy to. That had not been a good time in her life, Harry and Ron had ignored her and she had felt so lonely, but she couldn't hold a grudge. Apparently her professors had enjoyed it quite a bit.

'Now, Granger. I want you to try. Think of a memory and craft a way to hide it, you will want to contain it and hide it somewhere familiar to you. Perhaps the common room of your house or your dormitory. Somewhere that you could easily call up another memory from so that you can successfully layer over the hidden one.

Hermione chewed on her lip as she thought of this. What memory should she choose? Her eyes sparkled as she thought of it. She closed her eyes and thought of the memory, carefully folding it into a book. She envisioned her dorm room desk and placed the book on the bookshelf. She then picked a memory of this morning, feeding Crookshanks while Lavender put on her makeup. Her feelings of triumph, excitement and fear that went with that first memory abruptly went away. It was fascinating to her that she could do this; that could fold away old emotions within a memory. She took a deep breath and cleared her mind before she looked back up at her professor.

'Ok sir, I think I'm ready.'

He lifted his wand and cast 'legilimens!'

He was in her mind unerringly fast. He immediately started shuffling through her memories…

He was looking through memories that took place in the Gryffindor common room and then her dormitory. He shuffled through a few, mostly of Hermione studying while her roommates gossiped or of Hermione casting a silencing spell on her bed curtains so that she wasn't interrupted as she read and studied. He was able to quickly find the memory she had chosen of herself feeding Crookshanks this morning. The shuffling stopped abruptly and he quietly watched the memory play out. He watched it more than once, cycling back to her pouring the food into her familiars bowl more over and over again. After about the 4th viewing he was able to focus in on the bookshelf and select the book.

They were dropped into a memory from her first year. She was standing with Harry in a small room in front of a table that had seven bottles on its top.

*"Brilliant." She was saying.

"This isn't magic - it's logic - a puzzle. A lot of the greatest wizards haven't got an ounce of logic, they'd be stuck in here forever."

"But so will we, won't we?" Harry said.

"Of course not," she answered.

"Everything we need is here on this paper. Seven bottles: three are poison; two are wine; one will get us safely through the black fire, and one will get us back through the purple…"*

Snape ended the spell.

Hermione blinked, feeling that familiar disorientation when he left her mind.

Snape raised both his eyebrows at her and she smiled sheepishly in response.

'Interesting choice of a memory, Miss Granger.'

'Yes, sir, I thought you might recognize it.'

'Dumbledore had told me it was you who solved my riddle.' He said conversationally.

'I hadn't taken into account the fact that a muggleborn might be able to grasp the logic. Most of my colleagues were baffled by it.'

Hermione shot him a wide smile. He had subtly paid her a compliment by telling her that.

'The wizarding world doesn't require logic… I think that's why I like arithmancy. It's the only subject that really adheres to a strict and logical set of rules.' She said.

'You will notice as you advance in arithmancy that the classes get smaller and smaller, it is not a popular subject with many wizards.'

Hermione nodded, Vector had said the same thing at the beginning of Hermione's first OWL arithmancy class.

'Now, your attempt was adequate but I was still able to find your memory.' Snape said.

'How did you find it? You had instructed me to use my dormitory in the layered memory so you knew where to look, but how did you find my memory hidden underneath.'

'The book idea was… unique… but the tomb itself looked different. It was out of place in the memory as if it were drawn in later. The object itself will be taking on extra weight when its hiding a memory so until you get better at manipulating the memory, it makes more sense if you can put is somewhere that isn't seen.'

'So I should have hid the book in my trunk perhaps?'

'It may take a bit more effort, but it will be a better way to hide those memories. As soon as I looked directly at the book, I could sense triumph, excitement and fear. All emotions related to that memory I believe.' He glanced at the hourglass on his desk, checking the time.

'I think we have done enough for tonight.'

Hermione frowned. She hadn't noticed how quickly the time had gone by. Time was hard to track when occluding.

'Next week, Granger, come prepared to be outside. Wear clothes you can exercise in. Loose fitting and comfortable. We are going to start working on more defensive magic and warding.'

'Yes sir,' she said as she gathered her satchel and stood.

'I'll see you in class.' She smiled as she turned and left his office.

Hermione conjured another canary to join the other three that were circling above her head. She took a deep breath and tried to calm down. Her throat felt like it was closing up. It had been an awful week and this felt like the last straw. Beginning Wednesday morning, Ron has been horrible to her, sniping at her for every little thing or just flat our ignoring her. She had no idea what had caused him to be so angry with her. When they had talked on Tuesday she thought maybe that he liked her. After all of these years – she had liked him since their fourth year. She had been so proud of herself for asking him to the Slug Club party… it was clear that things had changed for him.

It wasn't her fault that Harry had tricked them with his potion. She wrinkled her nose, Ron thought he had been given Felix Felicitous too, he had no right to blame her! She conjured another bird as she thought about that. She was so sick of stupid quidditch. That's all they cared about, stupid quidditch! It didn't matter that Ron had been a huge prat all week, they won the game so all was forgiven…

Hermione's internal rant was interrupted when Harry walked in the empty classroom she had found.

"Oh, hello, Harry," she said- she struggled to make her voice sound normal… even when she was choking back a sob.

"I was just practicing."

"Yeah... they're-er - really good..." he responded. He stood in front of her with his arms hanging at his sides. If she wasn't so bothered she would find his awkwardness and clear discomfort kind of cute.

"Ron seems to be enjoying the celebrations." She was trying to save her own pride but knew she had failed- her voice had sounded incredibly unnatural.

"Er... does he?"

"Don't pretend you didn't see him, He wasn't exactly hiding it, was-?"

She was about to ask Harry about the previous week when the door behind them burst open. Ron came in, laughing, pulling Lavender by the hand.

"Oh," he said, drawing up short. Hermione rolled her eyes. Letting herself feel angry was keeping the tears at bay at least. Ron was such an idiot.

"Oops!" said Lavender, and she backed out of the room, giggling. The door swung shut behind her.

Ron wouldn't look at her, he seemed to be looking right past her as he lifted a hand in a half-hearted wave.

"Hi, Harry! Wondered where you'd got to!"

Hermione slid off the desk. She had to get out of here, she couldn't hold onto this anger very long. She refused to let them see her cry.

"You shouldn't leave Lavender waiting outside," she said quietly. "She'll wonder where you've gone."

She made herself walk calmly and slowly towards the other door. She heard the rustle of feathers as the ring of birds shifted to remain above her head, reminding her of their presence. In a split second she made a decision. They wouldn't see her cry, but she had every right to express her anger.

"Oppugno!" she shrieked, recalling a spell she had read about back in her second or third year. It should work quite well with conjured birds.

The little flock of birds sped quickly towards Ron, who yelped and covered his face with his hands to Hermione's satisfaction. The birds attacked, pecking and clawing at every bit of flesh they could reach.

"Gerremoffme!" he yelled.

Hermione nodded once, feeling a wave of cold satisfaction wash over her. Nobody had deserved it more than he, in her opinion. She wrenched open the door and left. She needed to get as far away as possible from Harry, Ron and the entire common room of gryffindors!

As soon as Hermione left the classroom she took off at a run- she didn't have much of an idea of where she was going, she just wanted to go fast… she had an idea that maybe she could go for a walk near the lake or something. She turned a corner abruptly, intending to head towards the entrance hall when she banged into something…hard. She hit hard and ricocheted back, falling into a sitting position on the hard floor.

'Ow!' she said in surprise.

She looked up to see Professor Snape standing above her, he looked a bit stunned to have been hit by someone at top speed.

'Miss Granger! What are you doing?'

She blinked, her eyes filled with the tears she had been holding back. She scrambled to her feet.

'I'm sorry sir, I wasn't watching where I was going.'

'Are you hurt?' He asked curtly.

'No, sir… er, just surprised.'

'Granger, you aren't allowed to run through the halls. Five points from Gryffindor. Would you mind telling me where you were going in such a hurry?'

'Well, I was thinking about going outside, sir, for a walk.'

He raised his eyebrows at that.

'I don't think that is a wise decision Miss Granger. You had better go back to your common room.'

She bit her lip that was the last place she wanted to go. She felt a few tears spill over and run down her cheeks.

'Sir, please. I can't go back right now. Everyone is there- there is a party and I can't be seen like this…' She whispered in desperation.

He regarded her for a long moment. Looking down at her with a slight scowl on his face.

'Very well,' He said quietly. 'You can stay in my office until curfew. You are not to talk or bother me and you will leave in exactly one hour.' He said, before turning on his heel and leading the way. She smiled at his back, absurdly grateful for the respite he was offering.

When they arrived in his office he went straight to his desk and sat behind it, gesturing to her usual chair.

'Tully!' He called.

An elf popped into place in front of him. Hermione furrowed her brow but kept silent, she didn't want to push her luck.

'Please bring us two hot chocolates, Tully.' He said.

The elf nodded and popped away, returning almost instantaneously and placing them on the desk. It tugged on its ear once and popped away without saying anything.

'Thank you sir.' Hermione said. She took a shaky breath and tried to compose herself as she cradled the warm mug in her hand.

He sighed audibly, pulled a handkerchief out of his front pocket and handed it to her. He then reached into his desk and pulled out a book.

'You may read this while you are here.' He said as he handed it over the desk to her. She looked at the title; Advanced defensive wards by Deirdre Defondra. He promptly pulled out a sheaf of papers and started marking them up with a quill and red ink.

She smiled. He had given her hot chocolate, a handkerchief and a book. He was being remarkably considerate despite his curt manner. She opened the book and settled in.

AN: Well, There you are. A chapter entirely made up of Snape/Hermione interaction. I know its pretty lukewarm now, Ill warn you that it will be this way for a while. I always see them as having a very slow moving relationship- they are going to take a long time to get to know each other.

AN: On a personal note- were any of you participating in the Women's March this last Saturday (1/21/17). It was such an incredible experience and I am still feeling empowered and inspired by it. I saw a sign that said: "Harry wouldn't have lived past the first book without Hermione!" That pretty much sums up why I am writing this story.

*words surrounded by a star are taken from the books - in this chapter both The Half Blood Prince and The Sorcerers Stone.