Chapter Ten- An Eventful Potion's Lesson

(Mid-March, 1996)

"I have marked all your essays," Professor Snape began, "and am sorry to say that most of them aren't to standard and will need to be re-written, by tomorrow."

The whole class groaned, hoping that their essays were good enough according to their Potion's professor. Hermione doubted that he was sorry for making his students re-do their assignment, but felt secure that hers was up to the necessary standard. She had spent hours laboriously working on it after all. She had been so caught up by it that she hadn't even had enough time to find Tobias to ask if he wanted to go with her to see the lake at 6am, for she knew how beautiful the sunrise made the lake look and was sure he would want to see it. Hermione then smiled to herself. Tobias was such a funny character; he acted as if he had no idea what was going on- he even pretended to not know who Harry Potter was for God's sake! He made her laugh, and his way of understanding things puzzled her and made him even more interesting. She was going to tell Ron and Harry about the new friend she'd made but decided against it- it was nice to have a friend to herself. Besides, Ron and Harry would probably awkwardly acknowledge him and then leave, not knowing what to say. No, it was better for him to stay as her friend only. And she had an inkling that Ron wouldn't like him too much for some reason. And Harry would be going off to find Cho- she was one of main things he seemed to think about these days. She wondered what Tobias' own friends in his year were like- no doubt they were lucky to be friends with someone who liked nature as Hermione realised not many people did. Harry and Ron barely even noticed the seasons changing and she'd always wished someone would appreciate the outside world as much as she did.

"Argh, I spent two hours on that!" Seamus yelled in exasperation, bringing Hermione out of her thoughts.

Professor Snape had started reading the names out of those he wished to re-do their essays. Judging from the two rolls of parchment he held in his hands, it was a long list.

"Well then you'd better get started soon, Mr Finnigan." Professor Snape replied curtly.

"Now where was I…," He said, scanning his eyes over the long list. "Oh yes, Georgina Harpers, Helena Woodcock, Ronald Weasley, Harry Potter-"

That was hardly surprising, Hermione thought.

"And Hermione Granger."

Hermione looked up from her desk abruptly. What?

"Sorry, Professor?" She asked innocently, desperately hoping she'd misunderstood.

"Do you understand English, Miss Granger?" He asked her harshly.

Hermione faltered. He was deliberately embarrassing her.

"As it happens, I do, Professor." She replied in a tone as sarcastic as she could possibly muster, hoping Harry would be proud of her. She turned to him and saw him grinning widely, giving her a thumbs-up.

Professor Snape however didn't appreciate the sarcasm. "Fifty points from Gryffindor." He shouted, glaring at her. "I wouldn't expect rude behaviour from you of all people. Surely the know-it-all would want to keep her record spotless? I'm afraid you've been hanging around with the wrong people, Miss Granger." He told her, glancing at Harry most unsubtlely. "Might you consider my advice to choose new friends, it might benefit you later on."

Hermione rolled her eyes when he wasn't looking, at least she had friends. Which was more than she could say for her Professor. Sometimes, he could be as bad as Umbridge.

"Harry." Hermione whispered to him, when she was sure Snape wasn't looking.

"Yeah?" he replied, bored.

"How on earth do you cope with him teaching you Occlumency?" Hermione made sure she was barely whispering, as no one was supposed to know about the lessons.

"Oh it's brutal. He won't ever give me a break. And I've been doing it non-stop twice a week since January- that's three months!" He complained.

The lesson was more or less uneventful after that; Snape continued to read the name off the roll of parchment and quickly realised that the only students who weren't on it were in Slytherin. Typical.

Clearly, Slytherin hadn't won the house cup many times when Snape attended Hogwarts, however many years ago it was. Hermione then wondered what her Potion's professor would've been like as a student. A nasty piece of work, for sure. He probably gave his teachers a hard time, and never did his homework. Hermione shuddered, she would not like to meet his younger self, at all.

When the lesson was finally over, Hermione gathered her things and told Harry and Ron that she was going to the library to re-do her assignment. She had to get it over with as soon as possible. She was about to leave the room when she caught Snape looking at her oddly, with a confused expression on his face. It reminded her of the first time she'd seen him. It had been in the Great Hall, and she had just had the Sorting Hat removed from her head after it yelled 'Gryffindor!' that resulted in a loud cheer.

"Welcome to Gryffindor, the best house!" Percy had smiled at her, as she went to sit down on the Gryffindor table.

She looked around to see Professor McGonagall, the Head of Gryffindor, smiling at her. Hermione then looked at the man sat beside her, with black beady eyes, and long, lifeless hair. He looked at her causally for a second before his forehead creased and his eyebrows almost furrowed together as it looked like he as thinking hard, like he was remembering something from a long time ago. His confused expression remained for a couple of seconds before he looked away brusquely, causing Hermione to fear is she had already done something wrong.

Later that week, when she'd had her first Potions lesson, he expressed the same curiosity as he looked at her, like he was confounded by her. When he'd started asking Harry questions, he stared at her whilst she waved her arm about, frantic to answer the question as if it was going to explode from her mouth.

"Tell me, Mr Potter, what would I get if I added Powdered Root of Asphodel to an infusion of Wormwood?"

Hermione immediately raised her hand. It would make the Draught of Living Death, of course! Snape looked at her with his head slightly bent sideways, as if he was trying to suss her out.

She raised her hand further in the air, desperate to gain her professor's attention but he continued looking at her with a troubled expression. Eventually he turned his head and looked at Harry.

"You don't know? Let's try again then, shall we? Where would you look if I tell you to find me a Bezoar?"

He sometimes still looked at her with that vague, unknowing expression however most of the time he would just scold her, or mock her for her ambition to know everything.

"Is there something you want, Miss Granger?" Snape asked her.

Damn it! She'd let her thoughts cloud her mind once again. I really need to work on that, she told herself.

"Well then I have to ask you to Get. Out." He said in an annoyed tone.

He was the one who gave her weird glances! Honestly! Hermione quickly left the room and headed to the library, determined to get her essay done, wholly forgetting about her plans to find Tobias Prince.