"It's impossible," thought Hermione as she sat by Ginny's side during their Potions class.

She could not believe that the man that stood in front of them and giving them instructions in his soft, velvet voice was the very same man she had always known as Severus Snape. Well, it was not his voice that surprised her so much; after all, it hardly ever changed, unless Snape was really infuriated. It was quite normal to see him so calm, reciting things in his quiet, singsong voice. However, he had changed.

There was no way she could understand the change that had happened in him. Of course, she was sure he had overheard her conversation with Ginny earlier that day, but never would she have expected he would actually respect her words...

"Are you certain he didn't hear what we were talking about?" hissed Ginny, who had actually become quite suspicious of Snape's behaviour. "He hasn't insulted anyone since the beginning of our class, and we have only a couple of minutes left."

Hermione did not know what to answer. She even opened her mouth to say that he had probably heard them... but she was so puzzled that not even a word left her mouth.

"Is there a problem, Miss Weasley?" asked a soft, kind voice, and both of them were equally shocked to realise it was coming from Snape's lips. "Is there anything too difficult to understand for you?"

Actually, it would not have been unlike Snape to ask such a question; however, in this case he was not sneering. He had not put even a little bit of sarcasm into his voice. It was a simple question of a teacher who was concerned that one of his students had not understood an instruction.

It put Ginny into such a shock that this time it was her who could not answer. She stared at Snape, her mouth open, then shook her head.

"N- no, no, sir," she replied finally.

"Good," said Snape in his new voice. "Please, put your potions into vials, then bring the vials here, to my desk. Once you have finished, class is dismissed."

There was a usual uproar as the students started to get up, having poured their finished potions into glass vials, then one by one approached Snape's desk, putting their corked vials onto it. Ginny, who had already stood up, watched Hermione, who was doing her best to take as long as possible.

"Don't wait for me, Gin," she said finally, "I think I've spilt some of my potion around the cauldron, and you know Snape won't have it..."

Ginny frowned but nodded and stepped past Hermione to put her vial next to the other ones. Having cast one more concerned look towards her friend, she then left the classroom. That was all Hermione needed.

Once she had made sure no-one but her was left in the dungeon, she straightened up and grasped her vial into one hand, her bag into another. Then, she approached Snape's desk. Snape at that moment was putting little ticks next to the names of the students who had submitted their homework.

"Professor," she said out loud, her voice trembling. It was way too obvious that she was nervous for Snape not to notice it – and there was something rather disturbing in his smile, even though one would say it was quite kind.

"Is there a problem, Miss Granger?" he asked softly, putting his quill aside and focusing all of his attention on her.

"There is a question," she replied hesitantly, then took a deep breath to calm down. "You must've heard us talking this morning. Me and Ginny."

"I have not even the slightest idea what you might be talking about, Miss Granger," he spoke, but the surprise in his voice was fake. "Why would I be overhearing my students' conversations? I am a teacher."

Hermione grimaced. She was way too smart to believe in such lies. Snape knew it well and soon stopped making fun of her.

"Of course I heard you two talking this morning," he answered, his voice changing just a little bit – it was still calm, but there was no fake kindness in it. Nevertheless, there was kindness in it, this one being completely true. "I did not plan on doing so... but you two were not trying to keep it low... and there were not many people in the Hall at that time. So my name quickly hit my ears... and I could not help but be curious."

When he looked at Hermione, there was a smile on his face. On her face, on the contrary, was a mixture of shock and shame.

"So I stood there," he continued, "listening to what you might be talking about... You couldn't see me, so I wasn't afraid you would suspect anything. I wanted to hear you speak out loud... honestly... and I got what I wanted."

"And what was that?" asked Hermione, frowning.

"Your honesty. You may lie to me, but you wouldn't lie to your friends, would you," he answered. Hermione's stomach jolted unpleasantly. "When you are talking to your friends, I can get to know your mind. Your thoughts. Your wishes. And so I have today. I've got to know what you actually expected of me."

Hermione remained completely silent, chewing on her bottom lip. It meant he had heard the whole conversation. He had heard her defending him from Ginny's strict opinions... Opinions which she usually shared.

"I wanted to show you that I could be the teacher you hoped for. A competent one... yet kind. And I can only believe I have met your expectations."

"That... that makes no sense," replied Hermione fervently, shaking her head. "Why would you want to meet my expectations as a teacher? You should want to be a good teacher to everyone! And a good teacher means... a kind one... an understanding yet a strict one... an unbiased one..."

"Have I not made sure to be like this today?" he cut in, looking at her with his brow furrowed. "Making your wishes come true, I became a good teacher to everyone, didn't I? Or is there anything else I could do to improve?"

"There's a lot you could do to improve," she said as a frown appeared on her face, but then, she stopped and took a deep breath. "There's simply no point..."

"...in what?" asked Snape. "In making your wishes come true?"

Hermione glanced at Snape rather boldly, but there was nothing but a smile on his face as she did. It was something she could not quite understand.

"Why would you try to change the way you've been a teacher for so many years?"

"To prove that I can be the way you want me," he said maybe a bit too quickly. After a while, he probably realised that, because he turned his face away. "Now, I guess you should get going, Miss Granger, because you should have a bite before our detention. Off you go."

Hermione understood it was simply no use continuing that conversation. As she took a deep breath, she nodded, said her goodbye, then left the dungeon. Only outside the classroom she realised how shaken she was.

"Good you're here," said Ginny, relieved, once Hermione had joined her in the Great Hall. "I've already started to worry and wondered if I shouldn't get back to that dungeon to get you out of there."

"No need," Hermione chuckled, but it was obvious her thoughts were out of the Hall.

"What was that?" asked Ginny seriously.

"What was what?" Hermione frowned slightly as she put some potatoes onto her plate.

"You think I'm blind or what?" This time it was Ginny who frowned. "Well, I may be not as smart as you are, 'Mione, but I'm definitely not stupid, either. I saw you hadn't spilt even a little droplet from your cauldron."

Hermione's hands shivered and she put her knife and fork aside, unable to hold them any longer. Hiding everything away from Ginny was not a good idea – her stomach jerked once more as she remembered Snape's words. Even he thought better of her... that she would not be lying to her friends.

It was definitely the best moment to stop having so many secrets. Ginny was her friend and she should start respecting and treasuring her as such. Especially when she wanted other people to respect her.

"You're right," she answered finally, lowering her voice. "Listen, I wanted to understand the secret behind this... change."

Ginny brought her brows together, then looked around.

"You know, it's not just me seeing this mysterious change. Everyone was talking about it when we left the classroom... it's good, because for a while I was afraid that I was imagining things," she muttered, then moved slightly closer to Hermione so they would not get overheard once again. "Not that people mind it, though... I guess everyone's relieved that at least this time no-one got offended by Snape."

"That's what I wanted to get to know more about," explained Hermione. "And guess what I found out."

"He did hear us, didn't he," said Ginny accusingly. Hermione nodded.

"He did," she admitted.

"But it still makes no sense," muttered Ginny, looking away and around, but there was no-one listening to them, so she needed not be so suspicious. "If he took what people said about him so seriously, he would've been changed like millions of times already."

Everyone would have agreed with Ginny at this moment – everyone except for Hermione who knew way too much to do that. There was only one thing she could do to explain the situation to her – tell her everything.

"Listen," she started, but got no chance to say anything else as more Gryffindors took seats around them.

"Hey, have you already had a class with Snape?" asked one of them.

"It's simply unbelievable..."

"This change..."

"Guess it's a miracle..."

Hermione gave a small "not-now" sign to Ginny, and Ginny nodded. However, even as they met later on in the common room (Ginny had had to talk about the Quidditch training scheme for that year before she could get back to Gryffindor tower), they were not given an occasion to talk about it. It turned out that the majority of Gryffindors had already crowded in there (and apparently everyone had already noticed the change in Snape – or at least heard the rumours) and there was not even a little spot left for them to talk about anything in peace – and Hermione really did not want anyone else to hear what she had to tell Ginny.

"We'll talk later," she mumbled finally as she left for her detention.

The decision she had made was already hard enough for her, and the difficulties she was being through right now only made her situation even worse. If it kept going on, she would probably change her mind and in the end, Ginny would not get to know anything about Snape.

She did not even know when she knocked on the door leading to Snape's office. Only when she heard his quiet voice ("Come in") did she realise she had knocked at all.

The door swung open and she stepped in.

"You seem to be nervous, Granger," said Snape worriedly. "Is everything alright?"

It was probably the first time she had heard those words coming from Snape's mouth. It surprised her, but she nodded absently before she took a seat in front of his desk.

"What am I supposed to do tonight, Professor?" she asked as calmly as she could, which was much more difficult than she had supposed.

"I thought you've already realised you're not here as a punishment, Granger," he said in a whisper. "That you're here because I want you here, close to me... talking to me... looking at me..."

"You know, sir, it's not supposed to be like this." Hermione forced herself out of her thoughts and as she looked at Snape in front of her, she focused as much as she could on sounding convincing. "This is not the point of detentions. If I have done something wrong in your opinion, you should punish me. Make me do unpleasant things to teach me a lesson, right? That's the point of detentions. To..."

But Snape did not let her finish.

"I could teach a child a lesson. But you're no longer a child, Granger. Not anymore. You're a fine woman, and you keep on making me go crazy, which is your major crime. I'd rather say just staying so close to me makes you uncomfortable enough for you to be able to call it punishment, if you will, but I am not going to make you do anything else."

Once he stood up, he approached her in a few long steps, then put his hand to her cheek in a strangely delicate motion.

"How could I punish you?" he asked quietly.

Hermione felt her heart jerk, making her even more uncomfortable than she had already been. Having closed her eyes, she inhaled more air, but it did not make her any less dizzy.

"Please, stop it," she whispered. "It's already enough of a punishment. I haven't done anything wrong. I didn't force you to fall in love with me."

"So you say," snorted Snape as he somehow managed to pull away and having crossed his hands behind his back, he started pacing around the office. "I believe... I think it's been enough. There's no need for you to come here anymore."

As she heard those words, Hermione opened her eyes and blinked in surprise.

"What... what do you mean, Professor?" she asked, as though not believing her ears. Had he just said her detention was over, even though just a couple of days before he had told her there was no point in her asking him to let her finish it sooner.

"Exactly that," he said quietly, but with some strange sadness in his voice. "Today's detention is your last one. You were right. The point of detentions is to punish a student. And... in my eyes you are not a student anymore. And I want you here not to punish you."

Hermione's heart did something like a giant leap before sinking low.

"Then... I am not supposed to come tomorrow?"

"You are not," he answered. "Actually, if staying here is so much of inconvenience to you, you are free to go right now."

Hermione felt way too tempted not to get up. She still could not believe all that had just happened. It was something like a strange dream, not reality. Seeing that Snape did nothing to stop her, she slowly approached the door.

"Just remember, Granger," he added, "if you step out of this office now, there is no returning."