Author's Note: Hey guys, this is the next chapter of my story. Please do leave some reviews and do mention if you find any problems in the story or if you want me to add something else to it. I really hope you like it.
TROUBLE WITH SNAPE
The next day which was a Friday and the last working day of the week, Harry and Ron met Hermione in the Great Hall. "Typical Hermione" Ron snickered when he saw Hermione reading a book while eating at the same time. "We have double potions today with the Slytherins today the last, remember?" Hermione said, "And Snape's most probably going to tell us to make the Confusing Concoction. You should read up on that before you go". Harry and Ron grumbled and started shoveling up the food from their plates. After their breakfast, the trio made their way to their Charms classroom.
Late that morning, they met up again to move over to the dungeons for their potions class. All three of them had a frown on their face, Hermione too, at the thought that they had to spend two periods in the dungeons with the obnoxious Slytherins and their dreaded head of house. When they reached their respective cubicles for their lesson, the sallow face professor spoke up, "Today, you will be attempting to make the Confusing Concoction. I will be so lenient to only tell you that this will be an individual activity and if I find anyone aiding their classmates, they would have to suffer the percussions." Snape briefly glanced at the Gryffindors and continued, "Successfully brewing the potion before the end of the class will be honourable and the maker will be awarded fifty points for their skill and patience. If there are no questions, then you may begin." Saying this, Snape made his way to his table and sat down.
Hermione flipped he pages and closely studied the ingredients for the potion. "Nine lovage leaves, a vial of flobberworm mucus, two pungous onions, four alihotsy leaves, and six daisy petals" Hermione spoke aloud and made her way over to the ingredients cabinet. After she had gathered her ingredients, she started making her potion. "So, the first part is simple; cut, grind and boil."Hermione thought and started cutting her pungous onions for the mixture. After making her brew of the onions, leaves and petals, she lifted up her head and saw that almost all her Gryffindor mates were having trouble getting the right consistency for the brew. Seamus, as usual had already created an explosion by putting too many pungous onions in his brew and had been severely reprimanded by Snape. Neville however, had almost done it but he, along with Harry, Ron and Dean were having problems in reaching the proper consistency of the mixture. Hermione quickly glanced at Snape and seeing that he was preoccupied with the Slytherins, she quickly hissed at Harry, "Crush one of the daisy leaves and add it to the mixture. Then put it to a simmer." Harry looked at Hermione gratefully and passed the instructions down the row. After this, the brown haired witch brought down her mixture from the heat and started on the next part of the process. But the moment she started adding the flobberworm mucus, the potion weirdly started emitting yellow fumes and began to bubble. Hermione panicked and called out to the potions master, "Professor, I need some help here, the brew is showing some weird behavior." Snape quickly made his way to her bench and in one swipe of his wand, made the entire cauldron disappear. Evilly glancing at the shocked girl, he began, "I will not tolerate such carelessness in the class. The instructions have clearly mentioned that the flobberworm mucus is to be added only after the potion has cooled down." Hermione indignantly started, "But, there was no such step in the book professor. I have clearly read it and….." "Well, if you had paid a little more attention and not preoccupied yourself to helping your friends then there would have been entirely different results." Hermione gasped and looked over at Harry and Ron in horror, and then glanced over at the Slytherins. She saw that Malfoy had a blissful grin on his face and understood. "He sneaked on me", she briefly thought and diverted her attention to Snape. He was still speaking and Hermione was only able to catch his last words, "An imbecile and a moron are those who do these mistakes. We see now that Miss Granger's bookishness has done her no good and it may only be for a show. Seventy points from Gryffindor for sheer stupidity and dishonesty." Suddenly Harry took Hermione's book and after glancing at it, spoke out, "Professor, she is right. There is no such instruction in her book."Snape glared at him and replied, "That is no excuse to such inattentiveness. And perhaps, you might want to serve detention for inadverdent cheating in class." Hermione warned Harry before he could fight back and made her way to her bench and tried to control her tears. Harry and Ron looked at her with a pained expression on their faces. Hermione looked at her book again. She knew that she had not missed any instructions and true to her statement, nothing of relevance to what Snape had said was there in the book. On closer inspection, she saw that a line had been removed that was preceding the instruction to put the mucus into the cauldron. "Someone's jinxed it." she thought while still holding her tears back.
When the class ended, the girl rushed out of the class with her satchel and books. Harry and Ron rushed out after her but saw that she had already turned the corner. Knowing that it would be futile to run after her anymore, Harry and Ron made their way to the common room. On their way there, Harry said, "There wasn't any line in the book. I think someone jinxed or erased a line from it." Ron solemnly added, "What Snape said was really hurtful. Hermione really takes pride on her intelligence and wit. That is the only thing she actually admires about herself and now a professor too has insulted it." Harry nodded and continued, "I hope she is okay. Snape had no right to say all those things to her. An imbecile and moron, he knows very well that 'Mione is none of those things. I think the Slytherins jinxed it. No one else could have done it." When they finally reached the common room, they asked a second year whether Hermione had come in here. The boy pointed his finger and the boys finally noticed Hermione sitting beside the fire with Crookshanks on her lap. They hurriedly went to her and sat on either side of her.
Before Harry or Ron could say anything, Hermione tearfully started, "He used to do the same thing you know. Blame me before I could say anything and call me the same names Snape used today." Harry looked at Ron briefly and then asked, "Who did this to you Hermione? What happened to you during the holidays?" Realizing what she had said, Hermione jumped up and ran up the stairs to the girls' dormitory. Harry tried to go after her but none of the boys under any circumstances were allowed to go up to the girls' dorm. He came back and urgently asked Ron, "Who was she talking about? I think that something serious happened when she was back home." Ron worriedly said, "I am having a very bad feeling that someone abused Hermione over the break. She was talking about a man clearly." Harry replied, "I think that we need to ask Hermione some serious questions in the evening or else there is very less chance she might open up."