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Chapter 10: Tempter Tantrum.

Hermione hadn't moved from the same position on her bed for almost two hours - she couldn't find the will to. Tears had fallen unchecked down her cheeks, leaving tracks in their wake and making her skin and eyes red and blotchy. Her body ached from lying curled in the same position for too long and her head ached from the intensity of her sobs. Yet she still couldn't muster the will to move.

Betrayal. Hurt. Loss. All these emotions were mixed into a cocktail running through her veins. She couldn't believe that Ron had hurt her this way, not when he professed to care about her so much. The cheating would have been bad enough, but the fact that he'd chosen Lavender Brown to have an affair with made it infinitely worse. She was his ex-girlfriend, and Lavender had never been overly friendly with Hermione to begin with, let alone after the events of their sixth year. Sharing a dormitory with Lavender was going to be hell from now on.

Ron's behaviour over the last few months and all the looks Lavender had been giving her had made sense. Not that understanding that made it any easier to bear, though, it just made her feel more stupid. How could she not have noticed what was going on right under her nose? It should have been blatantly obvious what was going on behind her back, and yet she hadn't had a single suspicion.

So much for being the brightest witch of my age.

There was a light tap on the window of her dormitory. Moving slowly and stiffly, she walked to the window and recognised a school barn owl. Who would write to her using a school owl? She took the scroll from the bird's leg and unfurled it.

Hermione,

Come down to the common room. You know I can't come up to the girl's dormitory to see you. And you have Snape's lesson tonight so I won't get a chance to talk to you after then.

Harry.

P.S You don't have to worry. Ron isn't here. He's down in the bathroom, trying to remove the boils on his face.

The presence of the school owl was suddenly explained. With a small twinge of sadness, she realised that such a letter would have been delivered by Hedwig in years past. It was apparent that Harry knew what had happened – no doubt Ron had told him first, hoping to get his version of events across first. Judging by his letter, however, it seemed that Harry wasn't taking sides at all and was sympathetic towards her.

With a deep sigh, she walked to the bathroom and splashed her face with cold water before going downstairs. Harry was waiting for her in the common room, sitting close to the fire.

"Hey, are you all right?"

Hermione shrugged, rubbing her face. "Not really."

"I suppose that was a bit of a stupid question. Ron told me everything."

"Oh, and I suppose you're going to side with Ron and ask me to forgive him –"

"Hermione, that's not what I'm doing at all. I'm not taking sides. This is your business, not mine," Harry replied steadily.

Hermione was silent for a moment. "I'm sorry, Harry. I shouldn't have snapped at you. I'm just so... angry. At Ron, at Lavender, at myself. I'm so incredibly hurt by what he's done."

"That's understandable. I've found out why Ron was doing what he did."

"I don't care why he did it. I don't want to know."

"I think you will when you hear it. In time it'll drive you crazy not knowing. You're too inquisitive to just let things be," he said, rocking into her side and nudging her playfully in an attempt to lift her spirits.

Hermione managed a small smirk. "It's not gonna change my mind you know."

"I know. I'm just telling you because you need to know that it's not your fault and you didn't do anything wrong."

"I must have if he decided to cheat on me," Hermione murmured morosely.

"No you didn't. It was all Lavender. And partly Ron, for being so stupid," Harry admitted honestly.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, remember the Final Battle, Lavender was attacked by Greyback?"

Hermione nodded.

"She was worried because she didn't know if she'd be a werewolf, or have any of the characteristics of one. The only person she knew who had any experience of this sort of thing was Ron, so she went to him, asking how Bill was when he was attacked by Greyback. Of course, the only thing you can really do with something like that is to –"

"Wait for the full moon," Hermione finished.

"Yeah. So they waited for the full moon, and Lavender was fine, no transformation and there were no characteristics whatsoever. They went out for a drink to celebrate. They got plastered and one thing led to another."

Hermione grimaced. "I don't need to know the details."

"I wasn't going to tell you them. Anyway, he woke up the next morning and tried to escape. Lavender caught him and blackmailed him, telling him that if he didn't keep seeing her, she'd tell you."

"I wish he had just stopped seeing her. At least that way I'd have found out sooner."

"True. So... what are you going to do?"

"I can't take him back," Hermione said, sighing. "Anything we had has now been spoiled."

"Fair enough. Bet you're really in the mood for Snape's lesson tonight."

"Oh, God. I don't know if I'm going to be able to cope with him tonight," she groaned.

"Just keep ignoring him like you have, and everything will be fine. You're a strong person, Hermione. You'll get through it."

At these supportive words, Hermione suddenly realised how much Harry had changed. He was much more grown up, and he seemed... calmer. It could just be the stress of the war being over that had caused this change, but Hermione wondered if the Horcrux inside Harry had actually affected him for longer and more severely than they realised.

Harry had always been prone to extreme mood swings. At the time, Hermione had put it down to the pressure he was under and the usual hormones of a teenager, but perhaps the presence of a piece of Voldemort's soul had exacerbated everything Harry was feeling. If it had, Hermione was even happier that the Horcrux was no more. It meant that Harry could live his life as any eighteen year old boy should.

"I hope so. I better get going. See you later."

As she walked to the portrait hole, she passed Ron. It was evident he'd had no success removing his boils, though his face had a raw, pink look as if he had scrubbed it harshly. As soon as he saw her, his face took on a pleading look.

"Hermione-" he started.

Hermione ignored him, giving him a filthy look as she was walking out of the portrait hole.

The anger propelled her to walk down flights of stairs at top speed. When she was halfway to the dungeons she realised that she hadn't done her usual calming ritual before the lessons with Snape. It usually involved a lot of deep breathing and trying to relax her mind. Such things were impossible though, after today's events. Slowing her pace, she tried to take deep breaths to quell her anger and put her in a relaxed state, but she found it extremely difficult. Before she had time to achieve it, she had made her way to the bottom of the final staircase.

The dank darkness of the dungeons complemented her foul mood tonight. Hermione wasn't sure how she was going to get through the next two hours. She was far too wound up, and that would make it especially hard for her to ignore his jibes; she was so close to snapping as it was.. Walking towards the door of the classroom, she prayed that Snape would be as indifferent to her as he was this morning in Potions.

She knocked twice on the door and was bid entrance.

As soon as she closed the door, Snape said shortly, "Complete the final stages of your Amortentia."

"Yes sir," she murmured in reply. When he turned back to his marking with no further comment, Hermione was immediately relieved. It meant that he hadn't noticed her current state of stress and anger. That or he had noticed but wasn't the slightest bit bothered about her troubles. Either way was perfectly fine with Hermione, as it meant she wouldn't be scrutinised and could get on with her task.

Ten minutes into the lesson, Hermione found that immersing herself in her work was actually making her feel better. Perhaps keeping busy was the way to get through this difficult time, and it wasn't like she didn't have enough things to occupy her time with. Her workload, though manageable, didn't leave much time for socialising, so if she threw herself into that perhaps things would become easier to handle, with time.

Currently, brewing was making her put everything that had happened that day to the back of her mind because she had to concentrate fully on her potion. The final stages of the Amortentia were the trickiest. The ingredients had to be added in extremely precise quantities and near perfect timing, and so Hermione could not allow her attention to slip to other matters. The heat from her cauldron and the hard work made Hermione feel very warm, which was unusual in the dungeons because despite the heat of one's cauldron, it was usually still very chilly. When she had to leave her Potion to simmer for thirty seconds, she took the opportunity to quickly yet safely remove her jumper, so that she didn't knock her cauldron over or something equally disastrous as that.

She turned to her instructions to see what was next.

After allowing to simmer for thirty seconds, add one Erumpent horn.

Hermione shuddered. From her most recent experience with an Erumpent horn and also from her background reading, she knew that they were extremely volatile. Handling it with care, and hoping to God that Snape didn't try to distract her at this crucial stage, she gently picked it up and placed it carefully in the cauldron.

The potion gave a hiss. With a sigh of relief, she turned back to the textbook.

According to the instructions, after stirring for one minute, the potion should have its distinctive mother-of-pearl sheen, the steam would be rising in the characteristic spirals, and it should start smelling appealing to whoever was near. This would be the final stage of the potion.

After sixty seconds of stirring, Hermione found, to her delight, that she had brewed the potion correctly. Feeling very pleased with herself, she leaned towards her cauldron and smelled the familiar scent of new parchment, fresh mown grass and...

Ron's aftershave.

She froze over her cauldron, trying to calm the rage that had suddenly flared up inside her.

"Miss Granger," Snape said silkily. "Would you remove that infernal thing from around your neck? If it came into contact with your potion it could be quite disastrous."

Puzzled, Hermione looked down. Around her neck was the necklace Ron had bought her for her birthday, the one with the heart shaped diamond. It glittered mockingly as it swung around her neck, and she realised that Ron had already begun his affair when he gave it to her. What once had been considered a thoughtful, beautiful and meaningful gift was now nothing more than a cold lump of stone strung onto a worthless strand of metal. She had forgotten she was wearing it, but now she was too aware of it, and it became almost like a noose, feeling heavy and suffocating around her neck.

She ripped the necklace off and threw it angrily away from her.

"Pick that up. Ten points from Gryffindor. There is no need for such behaviour, particularly in a Potions classroom," Snape said coldly.

Hermione summoned the necklace and slammed it on the desk. The last thing she needed was Snape making her angry too, or she wouldn't be able to keep her temper in check. It seemed that she was already failing at that, however.

"Granger-"

"Oh, be quiet!" Hermione snapped.

There was a small silence.

"I beg your pardon?" Snape asked dangerously.

It was a lost cause. She was too deeply angry not to retaliate. "I said be quiet! How do you expect me to work if you're constantly badgering me?"

"Silence!" Snape spat. "I will not be spoken to like that. Not even by a member of the 'Golden Trio'. Sit down and get on with your work."

Hermione looked into Snape's sneering face, still fuming.

"I've finished."

"Then bottle your potion. Do you think you can manage that without having a temper tantrum?"

Hermione took a deep breath. Still seething, she moved to collect a sample of the potion into a glass vial. She managed to fill a first vial. But her hands were shaking so much with rage that she dropped the second vial on the floor.

Not again! For crying out loud!

"Five points from Gryffindor for clumsiness." Snape drawled. Looking at him, she saw that he looked almost amused, probably at the fact that this was the third time that she had smashed something on the floor and it was something he was starting to expect from her. "You seem to be very accident prone lately, Miss Granger."

Hermione snapped.

"Maybe I wouldn't be so clumsy, Professor, if you weren't criticising my every move. How do you expect me to learn when you act like this with me?"

"Clean up the mess and get out," he said nastily.

Hermione vanished the mess on the floor. Literally shaking with anger, she realised that she couldn't stand being with Snape for much longer. The next few weeks would be tough enough as it was, without her factoring a snide professor into the bargain.

She made a very rash decision.

"I quit," she informed him.

"What?" Snape spat.

"I said I quit! I don't want to do the apprenticeship! If all I'm going to get is grief from you, I don't see the point in carrying on!"

Before Snape could answer, Hermione turned on her heel, and left the classroom, slamming the door behind her.

Severus sat in his seat, stunned. The noise of the slamming door was still reverberating around the stone walls. What on Earth had just happened? He'd seen outbursts of temper from Potter and Weasley. It par for the course for those two to act so immaturely. He had never seen Granger exhibit such behaviour.

With furrowed brows, he looked at where Granger's potion still stood, and saw her necklace glittering in the candlelight. Frowning, he walked towards the table and studied the diamond heart attached to the silver chain. It surely had something to do with her bad mood, for her to throw it from her as she had done.

Shrugging, Severus turned from the table.

At least he'd finally got Granger to quit. He smirked triumphantly.

Deep down, however, he felt a slight twinge of regret. Granger was an excellent Potioneer, and, with tutoring, could one day have made great advancements in Potions. If her Amortentia was anything to go by, she would have passed the apprenticeship without a problem. It wasn't often someone showed interest in pursuing further education in brewing, never mind the skill and attention to detail necessary to do so.

Severus was still happy, though. He only had to deal with the infernal Gryffindors once a week now, and their presence was diluted by that of other students. Finally, it seemed he would get some peace.

Hermione had calmed down by the time she reached her dormitory. The long and tiring trek through the castle from the dungeons up to the seventh floor had helped her work off some of her anger. She now laid once again upon her bed, curled on top the bedspread in the same position as earlier.

Now that she had managed to calm down a little, she regretted her sudden outburst in the Potions classroom. She knew that she could have tolerated Snape for the rest of year, in the same way she already had been doing for the past month. He had just chosen the wrong night to aggravate her, and now she had made a rash decision that she wholeheartedly wished she could take back. However, she knew that no matter how much she pleaded, Snape would not allow her to continue her studies with him. It was obvious that he had wanted her to give in as soon as he had found out that she would be having extra classes with him, and now he had got what he had wanted. Plus, she didn't want to give him the satisfaction of seeing her asking him to take her back on, and it would also give him the position of power over her.

Sighing, she crawled under the covers and snuggled down.

It was hard to believe that a day that had started so well could have gone downhill so badly. Everything had suddenly been turned on its head, and Hermione was struggling with the change. Depressed and upset as she was, it was a while before she managed to fall asleep.

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