Chapter 26: A Wet Problem
Harry sat on the the edge of the pier, cradling his golden egg with frustration. In all of the excitement in the past few weeks, the last thing he had been thinking about was the golden egg. The egg however, was not being overly helpful. Its high pitched wailing was enough to set his teeth together and throw it into the lake.
Spring was starting to creep across the landscape, and it was warm enough that Neville was nearby wading in the water as he ooo and aahhhed over countless water plants he was interested in.
"How is it that you are so horrible in potions, but so great in herbology, Neville?" Harry questioned.
Neville looked sheepish. "You have to admit that Professor Sprout is more amicable than P…p…professor Snape."
Harry sighed and nodded. "True."
"I do prefer… the plant to what it is used for though," Neville admitted. "I'm not like Hermione at all."
"No one can be like Hermione, Neville," Harry placated. "She's the only one he doesn't yell at for making horrible potions."
"No, he yells at her for everything else," Neville replied.
"Yeah…" Harry said with a shake of his head. "If they didn't go at each other like dragons in a library, can you imagine how much Hermione would know by now?"
Neville paused in the water as he lifted some pond weed off the lake floor. "That's kinda scary," he admitted. "I bet he hates her even more now that he's forced her into detention all the time."
Harry looked guilty. "She's always defending me."
"She's always helping me, Harry!" Neville argued. "I'm just as guilty. Doesn't help I blew up my cauldron on her this morning."
"You even got Malfoy with that cauldron, Neville," Harry said with a shake of his head. "She's going to kill you for sticking her together with Malfoy."
Neville shuddered with wide eyes. "At least Snape just sent me to detention and docked points. Hermione is going to kill me."
"I went to visit her in the hospital wing before Madam Pomfrey caught me and ran me out," Harry said. "She said she has to have Snape brew a solvent for it to get them apart."
"Merlin," Neville whimpered. "She's not even going to let me apologize. She's just going to murder me in the middle of the Great Hall."
Harry rubbed his hand in his hair. "I wish I could say it wouldn't be like her to hold a grudge… but you did stick her to… Malfoy."
"Maybe if I… get her a lot of chocolate?" Neville speculated.
"Make sure they are the cherry filled ones," Harry suggested.
"Really think that will help?"
"Better than nothing," Harry replied hopefully.
Neville gulped and threw a pile of lake weed onto the pier to go through later and it landed over Harry's golden egg.
"Ew, Neville," Harry groaned, trying to pick the weeds off his egg.
"Sorry," Neville said sheepishly.
Harry tugged the weeds off the latch of the egg. The latch snapped open and the egg opened, sending out a loud screech across the lake. Harry fumbled with the egg to try and close it, but the weeds just tangled up more. The golden egg, now even more entangled in the weeds, slipped out of his hand and plopped into the water.
Harry cursed loudly, cast off his outer robe, and dove into the water after it.
Neville rushed over to where he saw Harry dive in, worried when he realized he hadn't come up yet. Had the weeds dragged him down? Did he just drown his friend?
Harry came up for air with a huge gasp. "Neville!" He grabbed Neville by the collar. "You have to hear this!" Harry dove in again, this time dragging Neville in by the collar.
Harry and Neville came up sputtering quite a few seconds later, both of them wide eyed.
They pulled themselves up onto the dock, shivering from their unexpected dip in the lake. They looked at each other as they dripped over each other, using their hands to wring out their clothes. They met each other's gaze after a moment. "Wow," they chimed together, and fell back onto the dock laughing.
-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-
"I'm getting a little tired of seeing you here, Miss Granger," Poppy Pomfrey admonished Hermione as she passed her wand over her and Draco.
"I was not seeking this out, Madam Pomfrey," Hermione said as she lay her head back on the pillow.
"Nor was I," Draco muttered as Pomfrey ran her wand over him as well.
"Yet, I've seen the both of you countless times," Pomfrey argued.
"I'm innocent, I tell you," Draco moaned.
"Ffft," Hermione grunted. "Innocent of this, perhaps, but hardly innocent."
"Shut it, Granger."
"You first, Malfoy."
"Quiet, the both of you," Pomfrey chided. "You've been at each other all morning. I can't think of two worse people to have bonded together."
"Psh," Draco muttered.
"Meh," Hermione answered.
"Shh," Pomfrey said. "You two lie here like two civilized people until Professor Snape comes to unglue the two of you."
Draco and Hermione grunted a reply that seemed to satisfy Pomfrey. The medi-witch stormed off, clucking her tongue and muttering to herself.
When Pomfrey had left earshot, the pair busted up giggling to each other.
"So, how was it?" Draco asked.
"Was what?" Hermione replied.
"Your date, Ari," Draco clarified.
Hermione blushed, temperature rising. "We just went hunting together."
"Yeah without the bloody cauldron of magical raptors," Draco insisted. "How often does that happen?"
Hermione blushed harder. "I'll have you know, we spend time in the library together without it being a date."
"Yeah, but I know what hunting means to you," Draco ribbed her. "Don't think I just fell off the wagon."
"I hunt with you too, Draco Malfoy," Hermione said sternly.
"Oh it's come to this, has it, Hermione Jean?" Draco shook her cage a little more.
"Draco Lucius Malfoy!" Hermione hissed.
"Can't leave you two alone for a minute, can I?" Severus rumbled as he stood over them.
Two pairs of innocent eyes stared back at Severus.
"That look stopped working on me when you turned two, Draco," Severus tsked, unstopping the bottle in his hand. He poured some out on a cloth and began to wipe the joined flesh of their combined arms. "I swear to Merlin Neville Longbottom is a danger to himself and everyone around him."
"Only if a cauldron is involved, Severus," Draco said with a shake of his head.
Draco sighed with relief as his arm fell away from Hermione's.
Severus checked their arms for residue and nodded. "At least this was easily fixed. I'm waiting for one of his cauldrons to explode and send half the class into a time rift, soul bind two people who hate each other, turn someone into a whale, reverse ages someone to the age of five and have us scrambling to make the antidote, or just bloody kill someone," Severus said with a sniff.
Hermione and Draco blinked at him.
Severus leveled his gaze to his two charges. "You cannot tell me you haven't speculated on what horrible thing the boy is going to do next."
Hermione cast her gaze down. "I may have pondered it."
Snape shook his head. "Off with you, Draco. I need to yell at Ms. Granger so Madam Pomfrey thinks I'm being mean to her."
"Yes, Uncle," Draco smirked. "See you two later." He shuffled out of the hospital wing.
Hermione stood from the bed and sighed. Looking around to make sure that both no one was around and that she was safely hidden behind the privacy curtain, she walked into Severus with a grunt, wrapping her arms around his waist. Knowing he was going to dress her down to tears shortly, she had to mentally prepare herself for the shift, or a part of her would take it seriously, which was something neither of them wanted.
Severus gently pulled her head against his chest, soothing her hair as he would her feathers. :Tell me when you are ready,: he whispered, projecting warmth.
Hermione gathered herself, pushing her normal emotions deep and selectively shoving her painful emotions forward. :I am ready, Master.: Tears trickled down her face as she stepped away from him, staring up into his face as she concentrated on looking as pathetic as possible.
"Get out of my sight, Ms. Granger," Severus hissed loudly. "You wasted three of my very busy hours brewing that stupid solvent to get you pried off one of my House, and I am tired of having to look at someone who can't even get out of the way of a cauldron when it obviously ready to blow up. Get. Out."
"Y…yes, Professor Snape," Hermione stammered, bursting into tears as she fled the hospital wing.
Severus waited a few seconds before turning and walking towards the door.
"You're too mean to that poor girl, Severus," Pomfrey growled at him. "She's a sweet girl that doesn't deserve your rancor."
"If she was half as good as people seem to think she is, Pomfrey," Severus hissed. "She would have known to get out of the way."
"Mr. Malfoy was here, just like her, are you going to go yell at him too?" Pomfrey countered.
"Mr. Malfoy is not an insufferable know-it-all," Snape growled, turning on his heels and sweeping out of the hospital wing.
Poppy shook her head. Severus Snape really needed a friend.
-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-
Hermione fled the potions classroom in tears as she clutched her books to her chest. She passed a few of the other straggling students, sniffling, causing them to murmur sympathetically to her situation. She exited Hogwarts and took the path down towards Black Lake, out of sight from prying eyes. When she was sufficiently far enough away from Hogwarts, she shook off her tears and attempted to look less horrible.
Viktor was running up on the path from the ship, a gaggle of girls trailing behind him as per the usual routine. The fight in the Great Hall had, if anything, increased his popularity on the lists of many of the females of Hogwarts, and it didn't seem to matter that Viktor gave them no interest.
"Sestrá," Viktor said in greeting as he passed, a smirk on his face. He led the gaggle of followers up the path and away.
Hermione smirked, realizing that Aleksander was running distraction for Viktor yet again. Protection of each other was ingrained within their group. How it manifested was sometimes far more amusing.
As she reached the shore of Black Lake, she tilted her head back, taking in the scent of the water and wind coming off it.
A scrape of foot against the path caught her attention, and part of Hermione cursed the direction of the wind having concealed the identity of who was behind her.
"Hey," Ron said, shuffling uncomfortably.
A hundred things passed through Hermione's mind at that given moment in the way of replies, but either to her credit or her fortune, none of them spewed forth. "Hey," she returned greeting, eyes narrowing. It wasn't like Ron to be… sneaky, at least not on his own. It made her nervous that he'd been paying attention to where she was going and followed her. Had she really been wanting not be followed, she knew he would never have found her, but the fact he had followed her at all set a seed of ill ease in her stomach.
"Look, I'm sorry for being a real git to you the past few months, 'mione," Ron said. "I realize I've been misunderstanding what you've been trying to tell me, and I'm sorry I've been too self-absorbed to realize it."
Ron's apology, had it come weeks or even months previous, would probably have been accepted with open arms and a hug, but Hermione chewed on his every word, analyzing it with the thoroughness of a Slytherin.
Ron, taking her lack of answer as a need for elaboration, sighed. "I'm sorry, 'mione. I just wanted you to know… so you don't have to pretend anymore with Viktor just to get me mad anymore. I promise, next time, I'll invite you to the Ball myself."
Hermione stifled the immediate and overwhelming impulse to pinch the bridge of her nose as she cast her head backwards exactly as she'd seen her Master do when confronted with the sheer stupidity of his students. It was ludicrous, absolutely laughable, and completely off-base that Ron believed his error was misinterpreting her relationship with Viktor Krum as being a way to make Ron jealous on purpose.
"Ron," Hermione said carefully. "I'm not with Viktor just to get a rise out of you. I just wanted you to treat me like a human being."
Ron was approaching her now, and Hermione's body tensed like a spring. Vik twitered with concern from her shoulder and darted off across the lake with furious wing beats, looking more like a hummingbird than a hippogriff. Her lips parted as she instinctively scented the air. There was a tang to Ron's scent that she didn't like at all. Ron's arms were parted as if to give her a hug, looking all the world like the embrace of a spider coming in for its prey.
"After this year, anyway," Ron continued. "We won't have to worry about all these foreign people in our school anymore. It'll be back to how use used to be, right?"
Hermione shook her head. "Ron," she said softly. "It's not that I won't want to be your friend, but I think you're…"
"Come on 'mione," Ron said darkly. "You don't have to put on the act anymore."
Somehow she had allowed herself to be pinned against a tree. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. She clenched her hands, a trickle of blood dripped down to the ground as one of her half changed talons dug into her palm. Loyalty to the memory of her old friend warred with a newer desire that had nothing to do with reconciliation.
There was a crack in the air, and Ron froze in automatic response.
"There you are, my sister," purred Lazar as he pulled her to him into a hug as little Vik chirped and dove into her hair. "Ve have been looking for you. Picnic lonely vithout you, and Petya going to eat all ze fish." Lazar touched the back of her head, pressing her against his shoulder where his scent was strong as his piercing blue eyes met Ronald Weasley's. He passed her fluidly to Valko.
Valko took her into his embrace, smothering his earthen scents over her as his hand too touched the back of Hermione's head, soothing her hair as if they were feathers. "Petya also making roast venison," he rumbled. "Should go before he burn it like last one."
"Da," Lazar rumbled as he positioned himself beside Valko and blocked Hermione from view. "Would be… truly horrific waste of good deer." Lazar's hand went over Hermione's partially changed one, tucking it under his arm.
"Sorry for trouble," Valko purred, as he locked gazes with Ronald. "To miss picnic of High Master grievous insult. Cannot allow sister to miss."
"Come," Lazar said, jerking his head officially.
Lazar and Valko herded Hermione in front of them, disappearing into the undergrowth with a speed so swift that Ron barely had time to realize they had gone before they were no where in sight.
"Hey Ron," Harry yelled from up the path. "Ginny said you'd headed out here. Neville and I need your help. Why the heck are you out here by Black Lake? You usually never come out here without the rest of us."
Ron clenched his fist. "Nothing," he lied. "Just had to get a breather, is all."
Harry gave his friend a look of concern and Ron hustled up the path to meet them.
-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-
"Mnogo blagodaria," Hermione said wearily, as she buried her nose into her brother's shoulders, rubbing her cheek against them like Crookshanks did so often.
"Most velcome, sestrá," Lazar and Valko chimed together, placing their hands to the back of her head in an automatic reassuring gesture.
"He lucky ve come," Lazar said lowly. "If ve come late, you may have have handed him face with beak. Much explaining afterward… troublesome."
Hermione laughed, hanging her head. "He used to be a good friend, or at least, I used to think so."
"Opinion change or he change?"
"Little of both, I think," Hermione confessed. "We became friends before Severus took me under his wing.
Lazar rubbed her back. "I tink your Master better choice of options."
Hermione leaned into him. "There is no contest between them," she said. "I know who I would choose."
As if thinking of him summoned him from the ether, a dark eagle owl flew towards them. Hermione looked up with the kind of relief that welled up like spring from the earth. As Severus' body reformed into the dour looking Potion Master of Hogwarts, Hermione ran to him without hesitation. His arm opened in time for her to slam into him, burying herself in her Master's embrace, scent, and presence.
Lazar and Valko exchanged amused glances as the impassive looking Potion Master enfolded his Apprentice with his arms, his hand pressing her head against him in an echo of the same gesture Lazar and Valko had done when rescuing her from Ronald Weasley. Severus's great owl wings flapped and folded around her, fading into the dark drape of his outer robe.
Her Master's presence being the only excuse she needed to allow hers emotions to burst forth, Hermione cried into his robes as she realized that while she had gained far more than she had lost, the friend she had held onto since her first year of Hogwarts was very likely lost to her. A portion of that long clutched innocence that had hung on to her early since childhood was cut away, leaving behind a more experienced and world weary Hermione.
When her body stilled against Severus, she took a deep breath and pulled back to look her Master in the eyes. There was no bitterness marring her expression, only thankfulness and a love that needed no retelling. Now, or twenty years from now, she would always choose the dark wizard over the childhood bond of friendship whose memory was the only remnant remaining to her. Her Master's love was undeniable. Her friendships with Draco, Harry, Ginny, and others remained strong. Her bond with her Durmstrang brothers had proven, even in a relatively short amount of time, to be stronger than anything she had with Ron.
Viktor landed in the clearing with a thump, dark wings spread like the stretch of a thunderbird in the air as he landed. His lips pulled back from his teeth in a menacing snarl as his paws skidded in the dirt on impact.
Hermione looked up at Severus in silent question, and he inclined his head silently.
With a smile, she rushed to Viktor's side, wrapping her arms around the simurgh's scruffy neck, and buried her face into his fur and skin. The snarl on Viktor's muzzle relaxed, and he whined and licked her face. His teeth bared and he grasped back of her neck with a clamp of his teeth. Hermione submitted to the symbolic gesture, knowing Viktor was taking comfort in her much as she had just done with Severus. He released the grip swiftly, nudging her with his head before he returned to his human form.
Bowing swiftly to Severus, he kept his eyes averted and down respectfully, instinctively deferring to the dark wizard. "Petya burn dinner. Ve must hunt and bring back another before High Master find out. Petya feeding evidence to squid." He looked up at Severus in appeal. "Vould be honor, if Master join us for hunt."
Severus' dark eyes flickered with emotion so quick, it may not have happened at all. He inclined his head in a nod.
With that, Viktor leapt into the air, changing in mid-leap. Lazar and Valko flew up to his sides, and Hermione brought up the rear. Severus, watching them momentarily as they fell into accustomed formation, took to the skies, his silent wing beats carrying him aloft to join in on the hunt.
-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-
While Severus had not stayed for the actual dinner, he had participated in the flushing of the hunt. This time, Hermione had been the tester of the hunt, driving one deer after another in rapid succession. Ignoring the healthy and the young, she snapped at the older, and tested for weakness. When the snapping of her beak was not enough inspiration, her piercing eagle screams were definitely more than enough to send the herd scattering in multiple directions.
After multiple feints and drives forward, Hermione found the one that stumbled perhaps too often, or whose breath was too strained. She snapped her beak at the older deer's rear legs, blooding it and driving it out into their favored clearing where wings were less likely to slam into foliage.
As the buck stumbled out into the clearing in panic, Viktor descended upon the deer with a roar, his teeth clamped on the back of the deer's neck as his rear talons sank in deep to anchor him and his dark forelegs wrapped around its neck and claws in as his strangle hold and massive weight dragged the deer down upon itself.
In a few minutes, the deer had given up its struggle. Viktor raked his rear talons down the deer's soft belly hide, and stuck his muzzle into the opening as he sought what he was looking for. His teeth clamped around the heart and tugged it free. With a soft growl, he trotted over to where Severus had landed to watch the aftermath of the chase. Placing the heart down in front of the eagle owl, he licked his jowls and waited.
The eagle owl was perfectly still for a minute, then, landed on top of it, tearing into it with his beak to feast first.
Viktor backed away, returned to the carcass, and searched the inner cavity again, this time pulling out the other treasured pieces he was seeking. He snapped a large chunk off the liver and passed it to Lazar, another to Valko, and another to Hermione.
Hermione used her sharp beak to slice the piece she was given in half, and she extended to Viktor with a chirp.
The simurgh carefully took the offering, his teeth closing upon the food. He made it disappear quickly. They dug through the inner organs until all of the treasured edibles were devoured, sharing it between them, leaving the rest of the carcass to be carried off to Petya so he could attempt not burning it.
As Severus continued to work on the the large heart offering, Hermione had finished and trotted over to begin preening her master with her beak, setting his disheveled feathers in order. He hooted lowly, tolerating her ministrations as he fed.
At last, when the it seemed he had reached maximum capacity, Severus took the last of the heart in his beak and silently held it out to Hermione.
Hermione bowed down on her forelegs, turned her beak to the side, and very gently took the remains of his meal from his beak and made it disappear.
After the group of them had groomed, preened, and otherwise made themselves presentable, Lazar and Valko dressed the deer. Viktor returned to human form, and drew a cape from his inner pocket, tapping it with his wand to make it larger. He tied the cape across his shoulders and nodded to his brothers, who heaved it up over his shoulders. Viktor grabbed the legs in both hands and shifted his balance and took off in the direction of the camp he know Petya would be waiting for his second cooking attempt.
"As sister, you welcome to our celebration," Lazar rumbled.
"What is the celebration?" Hermione asked curiously.
"Viktor figured out second clue," Valko replied. "Is worth celebrating."
"Master also welcome," Lazar said, "but, also know you do not wish to expose self. Understand."
Severus nodded silently to Lazar.
"Ve take good care of sister," Valko said with a bow. "Bring home before curfew."
Severus smirked. "See that you do," he said lowly and leapt into the air, allowing the wind to carry him back towards Hogwarts.
Lazar and Valko put their arms around Hermione and guided her to where Viktor and Petya would be preparing the deer for the feast. Hermione wrapped her arms around her brothers' waists as they walked, allowing the earlier memories of Ron to fade away.
-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-
"He did what?" Draco hissed, his fists clenching to the point where his knuckles were white. "I'm going to hex him into Oblivion!"
"It's not worth it, Draco," Hermione said, placing her hand on his arm. "I don't want you to get in trouble over him on top of everything else."
Draco let his breath out slowly. "He needs a good kick to his nethers, Ari," he sighed.
"While I do agree," Hermione said with a sad smile. "I don't imagine you beating the crap out of him is going help keep our relationship under the radar."
Draco snorted. "Why do you have to be so rational?"
Hermione pointed her thumb over her shoulder at Severus, who was furiously grading parchments.
Draco slumped. "Point made."
Vik the Hippogriff chirped happily at Draco and head bumped into his chin.
"So, he fetched the Durmstrang without you even asking him to?" Draco asked, rubbing Vik under the chin.
"Yeah, I wasn't exactly thinking very clearly," Hermione admitted. "I let Ron back me up into a tree."
"That's not like you," Draco said with concern.
"I don't think it's going to happen again, to be honest," Hermione said with a frown.
Draco lifted a very Slytherin brow of curiosity.
"I'm not making excuses for him anymore," Hermione said. "Today… broke something. If Lazar and Valko hadn't show up, I would have torn him to pieces. I may have felt horrible afterward, but I would have done it all the same."
Draco nodded. "Count on Weasel to provoke one of the few people who could literally tear him to pieces when threatened."
Hermione smirked with a small laugh. "Not very bright, is he? Yet he's so good at chess. How is it that someone who can do so well at that… fail so horribly at reading people."
"Chess is strategy without faces," Draco replied. "It is war without real consequence and without real, dying bodies. You can win, fail, redo without ever having to live with the fact you just killed someone or broken their trust forever."
Hermione tilted her head. "When did you get so philosophical, Draco?"
"I've been hanging around you two for too long," Draco smirked. You're corrupting my delicate balance of ignorance and bliss."
"Pffft," Hermione said, waving her hand much like her Master was prone to do. "You forgot the effectiveness of the use of pulverizing the leaves instead of just chopping them." She pointed to Draco's essay and drawing.
"How the hell am I supposed to know that?" Draco sputtered.
"Language, Draco," Snape replied from his desk.
Draco slumped. "Seriously. How am I supposed to know that the effectiveness of pulverizing leaves in this potion when the last two potions we did were finely chopped."
Hermione smirked.
"Oh no you don't," Draco accused. "You're not going to pull top secret potion secrets that only a Master or Apprentice would know and expect me to know it too!"
Hermione gave him a pouting face. "Just because you don't know it doesn't make it any less true."
"Bah, you and your potions subtleties," Draco said. "You and me on a broom, and I'll fly circles around you both."
"We all have our talents," Severus commented dryly from his desk.
"Ugh," Hermione said with a yawn. "I need to sneak back into the dorm and sleep." Vik yawns beakily from her shoulder as if to punctuate her statement.
"Hrmph," Draco muttered. "If you were Slytherin, you could just walk across the hall."
"If I were Slytherin, I wouldn't have to worry about Ginny freaking out if I wasn't in bed," Hermione laughed.
"Psh," Draco said. "Details."
Hermione gathered her books and grinned.
"Goodnight, Draco," Hermione said, pulling Draco into a hug. She stood and shuffled over to Severus and pressed her face to his shoulder and neck.
Severus ruffled her hair with his free hand. "Goodnight. Be sure to take some healing paste with you before you go."
"Healing paste?" Hermione questioned as she reached over to the shelf and plucked a tin of healing paste off it.
"Someone tripped my wards in my storeroom," Severus said without looking up from his writing. "I'm sure your friends will have an interesting array of animated jar bites."
Hermione's eyes went wide. "You charmed the jars to bite people?"
"Who would do such a thing?"
Hermione disillusioned herself and exited the room, stifling her laughter.
:Goodnight, my Master,: she laughed into his head.
:Dream well, my Apprentice,: Severus purred into her mind.
-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-
"Harry, what happened to you?" Hermione asked wide-eyed as she came into the Gryffindor Common Room. "Merlin, Neville… Ron… did you fall into a tentacula plant?"
Her House-mates looked at her guiltily. They were covered in what looked like hundreds of bites.
"What the…" Hermione said as she grabbed a towel from the pile in front of them and blotted Harry's forehead, which was bleeding.
Neville moaned. "We just wanted to get gillyweed from Snape's storeroom for Harry's trial."
Neville was bleeding from countless little bites all over his hands and arms and his face. It looked like he had been attacked by a rampaging octopus.
Ron looked like he'd been rolling around in broken glass. There was no place on his face or his arms that wasn't covered in bite marks.
"Did you… at least get the gillyweed?" Hermione dared to ask.
"Pft," Ron scoffed. "Of course not. We were so busy beating off the jars, we couldn't even see the labels."
"Wait… the actual jars attacked you?" Hermione tried not to laugh, but it wasn't quite working.
All three boys looked utterly embarrassed.
Hermione pulled the jar of healing paste out from her robe and started smearing it over her friends.
Neville sighed. "Why is it you are always putting us back together, Hermione?"
"Why is it I always find you guys sitting in the Common Room covered in random wounds or plant material… or Lavender's perfume."
"Hey," Harry moaned. "The perfume was an accident."
"Assuredly," Hermione said dryly, shaking her head in a round about fashion.
She finished smearing the paste over Harry and Neville, but when she got to Ron, he snatched the tin from her hands.
"I'll get it," he huffed.
Hermione closed her eyes and just let it go.
"Harry," she said softly. "Have you thought about just… asking for the gillyweed?"
"Are you completely mental?" Neville hissed. "Who the hell is going to ask Snape for anything, even if he wasn't just going to outright hex us to death just because we breathed on him?"
Hermione took a deep breath. "I meant… have you tried getting a request from Professor McGonagall, Professor Lupin, or Professor Dumbledore for permission and have them escort you to Professor Snape."
Harry and Neville looked at the carpet. "Oh."
Hermione stood up. "I'm going to bed. Let me know how it goes in the morning."
"Wait… Hermione!" Harry said frantically.
Hermione turned and raised an eyebrow.
"Couldn't you ask Professor McGonagall to see what she says?"
Hermione gave him a very Slytherin poker-faced look. "Harry. I'm not the Tri-Wizard Champion. Why would any of them give me potion ingredients out of Professor Snape's storage room?" She turned and fled up the stairs to the girl's dormitories.
Harry and Neville exchanged pained looks.
"I'm going to die," moaned Harry.
-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-
"Did you… have a disagreement with a rose bush, Mr. Potter?" Snape droned lowly as he approached with Professor McGonagall. "I fear I'm out of healing paste. You will have to goto the infirmary."
Harry fidgeted with discomfort. "No, Sir, I fear was more clumsy than usual."
"To what… do I owe the pleasure of your… clumsiness?" Severus said, his dark eyes sweeping over Harry in a way that caused his skin to break out in goosebumps.
"Sir, I would like request a sample of gillyweed for use during the second trial," Harry said. "I was hoping you might have some."
Severus stared right into Harry's eyes. "As much as I would… love… to help you, Mr. Potter. It appears that someone broke into my private stores and smashed the place up. I might be cleaning and sorting it for… weeks… before I can be sure I even have a sample in which to give you."
"Surely there must something Mr. Potter can do to you help you sort through the jars, Severus," McGonagall said. "This is for the Tournament, not some random student project."
"Very well, Minerva," Snape droned. "I hope you have your dragonhide gloves, Mr. Potter. There seems to be a rather obscene amount of broken glass in my storeroom."
Harry blushed as he averted his eyes. "Yes, Sir. Thank you, Sir."
"Follow me, then," Severus said with a sniff, leading the way to his private storeroom.
Minerva smirked and turned to continue her walk back up to the Gryffindor Tower. With three of her House covered in strangely similar skin cuts with no desire to goto the Hospital Wing, it didn't take a genius to figure out that Harry's humbling himself in front of Severus Snape was not the "first" attempt at obtaining gillyweed from a certain Potion Master.
Chuckling, she changed into a silver tabby and padded up the staircase and up out of the dungeons, her tail curled up over her back like a flag.
-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-
A/N: Anyone catch my tip hats to some Neville-induced plotlines in other fan-fics? Yeah. I couldn't help it.