An especially long chapter for Ambara...
Chapter Fourteen: Disastrous
It had been a day since Hermione had returned home (not that anybody had noticed her departure in the first place) and in that day she had done almost nothing but take numerous walks around the lake with Ginny; her unsuspecting substitute for Lily Evans.
Hermione had decided earlier that morning that she needed somebody to talk honestly to, and taking into account that Dumbledore hadn't mentioned that she shouldn't tell anybody about her experiences in the past, she deemed the red headed witch a suitable person to share her thoughts with.
"And the boys have no idea that you went?" Ginny asked as she tightened her scarf around her neck to reduce her skin's exposure to the cold winter's air.
Hermione sighed sadly. "I wish I could tell them," she countered. "But I just don't think that I can trust them. Well not it's not so much a matter of trust…oh I don't know what it is!"
"It's okay I understand," Ginny concurred considerately. "Harry would never stop with questions about his parents – understandably so," she added quickly, "and it wouldn't do him any good knowing what you now do."
"That's what I thought at first, but now I'm just not sure."
"Harry has enough on his mind at the moment, Hermione," Ginny reminded delicately. "He doesn't need any more distractions."
"I suppose you're right. I will tell him though, once this war is dead and buried."
"Bad choice of words 'Mione," Ginny giggled.
"Oh gods yeah sorry!"
"So," the red-head continued as they embarked upon the path back up to Hogwarts. "Who else did you meet on your travels?"
"Well, I met the Marauders obviously," Hermione replied with a small smile at the mention of her old/new friends. "Erm, the younger selves of our Professors, including McGonagall who is so very flirtatious and enticing in her earlier years by the way, and I also met Professor Snape."
She mumbled the last name of her list and Ginny was quick to notice this.
"And what was that tone of voice for?" she asked inquisitively.
"Nothing," Hermione dismissed as she tore a leaf up nervously into tiny pieces and threw them onto the path beneath their feet.
"Hermione Granger I know you well enough to know when you are lying!" Ginny accused. "So come on and tell me why you said Snape's name like that, otherwise I will be forced to hex it out of you."
"You wouldn't dare!" Hermione exclaimed.
"Try me."
There were a few moments of silence in which Hermione contemplated telling her best friend about her encounter with her Professor's younger self and physical doppelganger.
"Fine," Hermione sighed in defeat. "I'll tell you, but if you even mention this to the boys, I will hunt you down and tear you apart!"
"Ooh feisty," Ginny teased humorously earning her a soft slap on the arm from her friend. "So, were you two friends or something then?" she asked more seriously after an instant of deliberation on both parts.
"Yes I suppose we were," Hermione mused.
"You suppose you were, or you actually were?"
"Well yes, we actually were. It was complicated."
"Why don't I like the sound of this Hermione?"
"Oh please don't hate me Ginny," Hermione begged gently.
"Hate you for being friends with Snape?" Ginny asked rhetorically. "Hermione, why would I resent you befriending a person who is both your intellectual and spiritual double? I've always seen similarities between Snape and you anyway, so it was strangely inevitable that you'd end up making friends with his younger being."
"Ginny," Hermione admitted quietly with a long, nervous sigh. "Snape and I weren't just friends."
"No way!" Ginny exclaimed, her eyes wide in amazement. "You and Snape!"
"Me and Snape," the darker haired girl answered with an unreadable expression playing about her pale face.
"Shit me!" came the vulgar reply from the younger girl. "How on earth did that happen?"
"We had to share a room as Head Boy and Head Girl and I suppose I just fell for him; As cliché as that sounds."
"But it's Snape. You knew that he was your Professor and that he would recognise you when you returned so why still do it? What on earth did Dumbledore say? And oh my god have you seen Snape yet? What did he say? Oh my god, oh my god this is madness!"
"One question at a time Ginny," Hermione giggled at her friend's sudden rush of colossal excitement. "I'm still a little confused about the whole scenario myself, so please don't make it any worse by bombarding me with your millions of questions."
"You've just told me that you've been fucking Snape, or Professor Snape should I say, and you expect me to just lie down and take it – pardon the pun," she added with a large grin. "Of course I'm going to ask you bloody questions."
"First of all," Hermione reprimanded sternly, "I did say anything about fucking anybody!" She whispered the cuss word as if it were Voldemort's own name being said.
"Of course you did!" Ginny indicted.
"Well yes we did have relations but that is beside the point Ginerva Weasley!"
Ginny clasped her hand over her mouth and squealed loudly whilst revolving on the spot like some sort of crazed ballerina.
"Oh will you calm yourself down!" Hermione chided. "Do you want to hear the story or not?"
"Of course I bloody do you daft witch, come on, get on with it and don't miss out any of the gory details. I want to know everything."
"Well, to answer your many questions from before," Hermione began as her mind attempted to memorize the younger witch's previous enquires, "Dumbledore told me to follow my heart not my head from the off and so would have had no right to criticize anything that I did which involved my emotions; McGonagall basically agreed with the Headmaster by saying that I was right to let myself fall for Severus and yes," she added finally and more solemnly as the tears began to form in the corners of her eyes, "Professor Snape was there when I returned but he practically ran out of the Headmaster's office to get away from me."
"Wow!" Ginny gaped.
"Indeed," Hermione replied as she dried her teary eyes with the cuff of her robes.
"So what are you going to say to Snape when you see him? What do you think he'll do?"
"I don't know what I'm going to say to him to be honest and that's what I'm scared about. For me this whole episode was quite literally yesterday but for him twenty years have passed since. He's changed and he's learnt to live life without me. I mean, what can I possibly say to the man of the boy I used to love?"
"You could tell him that you still love him," Ginny retorted earnestly. "Surely he loved you too?"
"I am almost certain that he truly loved me," Hermione corresponded, "for he told me often enough, but I honestly doubt that he would still. I'm just his insufferable N.E.W.T student with bushy hair and overly large front teeth."
Ginny laughed despite herself and the pessimistic train of conversation. "Firstly, you do not have bushy hair or large teeth! Your hair is simply unruly yet beautifully curly, and as for your teeth, they are perfectly adequately proportional to your mouth."
"And," the red haired witch continued as she placed her hands concernedly on Hermione's shoulders as they reached the bustling Transfiguration Courtyard and ceased their movements, "he fell in love with you as you are now and were then. You have not changed."
"No but he has. He's a fully grown man Ginny."
"And?"
"And," Hermione repeated sadly, "what on earth would he want with an eighteen year old school girl?"
"Yes your right," Ginny sighed sarcastically as she continued her journey through the castle. "What on earth would a lonely man want with an astute, intelligent, beautiful and caring young woman who loves and worships the ground that he walks on? Geesh Hermione," she added, "open your bloody eyes."
"Hermione!" whined Ron as he bound into the Gryffindor common room scratching his ginger head confusedly. "Where's my class timetable?"
"How on earth am I supposed to know Ronald?" she replied with a loud tut whilst shaking her curly head absentmindedly. "How many times have I told you to put your belongings away in their correct place so when the time comes for you to use them, you know exactly where they are!"
As she sat in her armchair, a large book in hand, Hermione pretended to be annoyed by Ron's reliance on her for the location of his things, but inwardly she couldn't help enjoy this usually annoying conversation as she had truly missed all of her friends and their aggravating habits.
"So just how the bloody hell am I supposed to know what lessons I have!" he groaned further as he scoured the room for the misplaced piece of paper, but clearly from his mounting frustration having no such luck.
"It is almost two months since school started after the summer Ronald," she reprimanded, her eyes never leaving her page, "you should know your time table off by heart by know, which is why the Headmaster gives us a piece of paper at the start of the year rather than tattooing it permanently to our foreheads!"
"And since when did you get so sarcastic?" Ron accused agitatedly whilst continuing his vein search for his time sheet. "If you carry on with that malarkey you'll be worse than Snape, so nip that annoying habit in the bud before it spirals out of control."
"Thanks for those words of wisdom," Hermione retorted as she pondered whether her time with Snape had caused her to adopt some of his more frustrating habits, and hoped that if that were true it were not too apparent to others.
"Now," she continued, diverting her thoughts away from Snape and towards her schooling, "I'm off to double potions."
"Well why didn't you bloody say so earlier?" Ron cried. "I've just wasted half an hour searching for that ruddy piece of paper whilst a human timetable is sat right here under my nose."
"I did just 'bloody say'," she mimicked impatiently. "Now come on, I don't want to be late on my first day back."
"Hermione have you gone completely barmy?" Ron asked upon noticing her slip of the tongue. "First day back?"
"Oh shut up picking holes in everything I say and get yourself into gear. Harry's meeting us in the dungeons and it will simply not do to be late!"
"Yes Miss," the young wizard replied sardonically and they set off for their first class of the day.
With her eyes cast anywhere and everywhere but the front of the ominous dungeon classroom, Hermione entered the room with Ron and Harry at both of her sides and took her customary seat on the second row of workstations, which were already equipt with bubbling cauldrons of base potion.
"Do you mind if I work with Neville today?" Harry asked Hermione as she began unpacking her school bag and organising its contents on the wooden desk before her. "I promised him that I'd help him out with his essay."
"No not at all," Hermione replied, her attentions wandering enormously from the boy's information of who was partnering who for the lesson.
"Okay then great," Harry returned as he strode off to the other side of the room and Neville. "See you at lunch."
"Looks like it's just me and you then," Ron said joyfully and with a large smile as he sat down in Harry's seat.
"Mmm," was all Hermione replied as she searched her bag for her quill.
"Silence!" bellowed a loud baritone voice from the apex of the room, causing Hermione to jolt upright suddenly and almost wobble of her stool. She buried her head back in her bag in embarrassment as a series of giggles circulated around the room.
"Now," Snape drawled in his usual cold, stern tones as he paced the front of the room and tapped his wand against the blackboard behind him. "In today's lesson we will be experimenting with the viscosity of Dragon blood to see how it affects the over all strength and intensity of an ageing potion."
A succession of loud whispers emanated from the back of the room to the front, as a small gathering of people began to discuss their excitement with regard to this task set by the Professor.
"Quiet!" drawled Snape disdainfully, and immediately the conversation ceased.
"This lesson is neither meant to be fun nor exciting, and is rather a specific requirement of the ministry of magic's potions syllabus. As such," he added, his black eyes falling upon Neville and Harry, "there will be no foolish behaviour or silly experimentation, as the incorrect brewing of this specific potion no matter how humorous, can cause serious damage to the body's cells."
"Excuse me, Professor Snape, sir," Harry interrupted; his arm aloft in the air as he asked the rather futile question. "So we are to change the viscosity of the potion to see how it affects the outcome?"
"Is there a parrot in the room?" Snape snarled sardonically as his eyes roamed the room sarcastically. "Ten points from Gryffindor for wasting all of our time by repeating everything I just said!"
Harry groaned loudly.
"And another five for your insubordinate noise!"
Now the entire section of Gryffindor students in the room sighed loudly and turned to snarl Harry; much to Snape's delight.
"The ingredients and also the method required are written on the board. You have an hour and a half to complete the task. Any questions?"
For once Hermione did not raise her hand and instead kept her eyes cast low to her desk.
"Not even from our resident insufferable know-it-all?" Snape hissed venomously.
Still, Hermione did not look up.
"Nothing to say Miss Granger?"
Silence descended once more upon the dark room and everybody sat with baited breath for Hermione to at least nod her head in reply to the Professor's question.
"No? Good," he snapped, answering his own question with as much malice as he had asked it, "because I think you have already plagued us with enough your irritating questions to last a thousand life times."
Ron tensed angrily beside her, but she placed a gentle and reassuring hand on his arm to show that she was all right and that he need not explode and lose yet more Gryffindor points.
"What are you waiting for?" Snape snapped promptly. "Get on with it!"
The lesson passed agonisingly slowly for Hermione as she attempted, with shaky hands, to complete the potion before Snape reached their desk to inspect her and Ron's work. He was only a couple of desks away and she still had to add the final asphodel leaf to the concoction.
"'Mione are you alright?" Ron asked, as he clasped her trembling hands between his concernedly. "You're shaking."
"I'm fine," she lied as nervousness of her forthcoming encounter with Snape coursed through her body.
"When you are quite finished expressing your nauseating love for one another," Snape interrupted sternly as he stepped prematurely before their station and glared at their adjoined hands, "I'd like you to explain to me why your potion is even worse than the diabolical attempt of Potter and Longbottom."
"It's my fault sir," Ron lied before Hermione could speak. "I told Hermione that I wanted to do the experiments myself and I completely balls-ed up."
"Well that's a fair way of describing this mess I suppose," he retorted. "Still," he continued harshly, "you have both received zero for this assignment and will report separately to me for an hour's detention after dinner this evening."
"Weasley," he informed sharply as he bottled their potion. "You will spend seven until eight o'clock scrubbing the cauldrons and Granger, you will spend the following hour organising my store cupboard."
" But-"
"No buts Mr Weasley," he chastised firmly, his black eyes not once meeting Hermione's for fear of what would happen if they did. "You will arrive promptly and serve your time as instructed. Failure to do so will only quadruple your punishment."
For the second time in as many days, Severus Snape stormed away from Hermione without uttering a single word...
A.N: To all those who have said so, I abhor time travel fics too but I just wanted to at least try and write one :D