Chapter 5: Bring on the sweets

As she suspected, after lunch she quickly caught up with the diminutive professor who graciously said that he was certain she missed nothing and would be glad to let her have enjoyed her slight break. He even said that felt awful about how much detention she was serving, going on and on about the injustice of it. Where Hermione had to settle it by saying she had done something wrong and was taking her punishment in stride.

She was anxiously trying to get away from the talkative professor, particularly when he began suggesting talking to her other professors and allowing her to be excused for the day. That was when Hermione promptly but politely refused, she didn't want more time to decipher all the strange occurrences she was having this day over her Potion's professor.

#9

Hermione ran to the entrance to the kitchens. She had no idea if or how long Professor Snape had been waiting or if he still was. She hoped he was, this would severely put her brew schedule behind if he had grown impatient and left. Once she arrived at the portrait of the fruit bowl. Looked around to see if her companion for this event was near. She was worried about entering alone. She decided she would wait a couple of minutes before entering. Hopefully the elves won't deny her access if she walked in without the professor. While she stood fretting, she was startled by a voice behind her.

"Why are you just loitering? Just go inside." Snape inquired

"It's not that simple. You see the elves aren't particularly fond of me since well fourth year."

"Right, the misguided elf rights movement. Vomit or something." Hermione flushed at the thought that he knew about her crusade and was flustered over him calling it by an incorrect name.

"S.P.E.W, Sir. Be that as it may, they are all terrified that I am going to give them clothes. I learned my lesson and yet our relationship is strained."

Snape made a noncommittal sound and tickled the pear in the bowl and the door opened. As it were, there was nothing to worry about, the elves went stark silent when the pair entered. It appeared they didn't enjoy the Potion Master's presence anymore then her own. Then he glared at the lot "Back to work with you! Don't you have lunch to finish preparing." They all flinched in unison and quickly dispersed. Leaving the pair to their own devices. "They are not my biggest fans either, however for a completely different and well deserved reason."

"I can see that, Sir." They walked over to baking area and Hermione found a small loaf pan. "I'll replace it the next time I can go to Hogs Mead. Don't want anyone to get bread with any residue on it."

"That is unnecessary, there are many more available, one won't make a difference." Snape then handed Hermione a flask filled with her potion, which she took and placed it with her ingredients. She pulled out her notes for this potion and added enough of it to the mixture. He watched as Hermione wandered the kitchen cabinets for all the ingredients for a simple loaf of pound cake she knew how to make. She didn't acknowledge him as she prepped, mixed and poured the mixture into the pan. Reminding herself not to taste the batter, as she would normally, even if her grandmother would scolded her about stomach worms she would get from the act. After finishing she turned to her professor to ask him to set a timer since her hands were occupied. But as she turned the spatula she was using fell out of the bowl and splattered all over the black trousers and boots of said professor. Horrified and fearful of the coming verbal assault, she instantly put down the bowl and grabbed a tea towel from nearby and tried to clean the mess.

"Miss Granger, get off the floor this instant." His voice was tight and said through clenched teeth. Ashamed of her clumsiness. She backed away and got up. She could feel the hot sting of embarrassment tears well up in her eyes. She turned away so he couldn't mock her for it. She heard him murmur a spell, "cease the irrational tears. I have cleaned the mess and put the loaf in the oven." She tried to take a few deep breaths as she tried to compose herself. She was mess and didn't want him to see her, despite the fact that he could hear her nasally sniffs. Within a moment the same tea towel she tried to use to clean the spilt batter was shoved near her face. She whispered a thanks to the rather considerate act of the wizard behind her. She cleaned herself up quickly and turned around. She must have looked a sight, but thankfully he didn't comment.

"I'm sorry." She finally said with a weak voice.

"It's of no consequence. It happened, it was dealt with and now we move on." Hermione nodded, such a pragmatic response and yet it made her feel better.

"I was also hoping to find the ingredients for the hard candy and some chocolate to melt down. Since I figured I could do both of those easily in the lab."

Snape nodded and called for an elf. One came and he firmly requested the items she required. The meek creature agreed and disappeared and reappeared with all the items and list of instructions for the candy in a small basket and handed it to Snape. He, in kind turned to Hermione. "I will take these with me to the lab after lunch."

"Thank you, Sir." She said. Then she found a wooden stool nearby and sat. She was silently cursing at her clumsy moment, that it killed her chance to have an adult conversation with the potion master. That was when he came to sit near her.

"That is not becoming vocabulary, Miss Granger."

Hermione blushed at being heard. "I apologize, this whole mess ruined the opportunity for me to try and have conversation with you. But I'm sure it's definitely just made you lose even more respect for me." She said in a self deprecating tone.

"Whatever made you believe you could converse with me on an equal level?" His comment at face value seemed harsh, but wasn't in tone. She felt like it was more curious then cruel. Hermione felt like it was more of his way to remain off putting, but give her the opportunity to continue the conversation. She let out a small smile.

"Because I wanted to discuss potion theory with you. I was growing even more interested in the craft and since I'm learning so much about these types of potions. I was wondering, if there were other novelty type potions that could be equally dangerous in the wrong hands."

He sat there quietly for a moment, she could only hope that he was mulling over her inquiry instead of ignoring her. "Any potion can be made to be dangerous in the wrong hands or even in the right ones. However, I feel that love potions are truly the most dangerous of all. They render the victim defenseless to the effects and worst they are often unaware of being a victim. Remarkably similar to an Imperio, but these are written off as harmless by and far."

"Is that what you meant by 'Bewitch the mind and ensnare the senses?" She felt silly reciting his quote from first year.

"Becoming a Potion Master gives you new insight on how mailable life is. Under the right or I suppose wrong circumstances, depending on your outlook, you can easily make people do whatever deeds your require with a well crafted potion. And once you know how to manipulate ingredients the sky is truly the limit. However there are too few in the world that have the patience to study the art or drive to fail ninety nine times."

Hermione smiled, as she recognized the quote Snape was referring. She hated that he was simply her professor. She could see herself enjoying his company otherwise. His otherworldly intelligence was refreshing. Then she noticed that her mind was painting very unrealistic images of them spending time together under very different circumstances. And it only reminded her of her earlier dream. It was then that she looked away from the profile of the man next to her and to the small hourglass near the oven. It was nearing the end, she got up and went to check on her baked good. Normally she would have opened the oven and took a deep whiff to see if it was properly baked. But since she didn't want to be caught unawares, she simply pulled it out and stuck a small knife into the center to see if it was ready. It was and she set on a rack to cool.

With the item baked, their time together came to an end. He told her that he would take the baked good to his lab and keep under stasis until she returned after dinner.

#9

Classes had concluded for the day and Hermione returned to her dormitory. She found herself looking through her post for her copy of the latest edition of Potions Digest. She started perusing it for talking points. Feeling excited for an intellectual conversation with her reserved professor. Then as if the realization smacked up side the head, her hands stopped grasping the edition and her jaw hit the floor.

She was harboring a crush on Professor Snape.

She ran from her room and out into the courtyard. She figured she just needed fresh air. It occurred to her that possibly being exposed to all the ingredients and scents of potions she was brewing was possibly affecting her. That maybe her feelings were artificial due to the influence of the love potions. She wandered around outside until it grew too cold to continue. Then slowly made her way inside. She figured she'd catch supper early and give herself sometime to collect her thoughts before her assigned detention. Upon her return she picked up her discarded periodical and sat on her bed. Read it from cover to cover, before she needed to leave for the dungeons.

As she made her way down the many flights of stairs that separated her from the potion master's inner sanctum. Hermione tried to sort through her feelings about said wizard. It didn't take long for her to decide that she couldn't recall any long suppressed feelings for him. Making her feel reasonably sure this had to be a by product of potion ingredients exposure and spending so much time with him.

She felt a little lighter on her feet as she felt her confidence return. But it did occur to her that she needed to make sure she finished her detentions quickly, as she didn't want to do something foolish just because she was under the influence. With a new resolve she reached the door to Professor Snape's office. Knocking lightly, Hermione heard a slight exasperated sigh as the baritone voice called through "Come in, Miss Granger."

She entered the room and all the self installed confidence, flew away. As her eyes laid upon the man hunched over his desk finishing something before he stood to his full height and went to let her in to his private lab. She felt her face flush and her heart sped up. She mentally scolded herself for the reaction.

He indicated for her to enter the room. She could see the deceptively delicious loaf on the workbench along with the basket with the candy making supplies.

"I suspect you can follow those instructions for making the candy?" He asked, with a hint of annoyance. Hermione nodded, not trusting her voice. He turned around and walked back toward his office. And for a quick moment she noticed he had removed his voluminous robes and was walking around in his normal buttoned up regular dress. She couldn't help but notice the slight, but dashing figure he was hiding. But then again she did get to see him in this state of dress once before. In the ill fated dueling club with the utterly ridiculous liar Lockheart. The thought of the man and her stupid crush made her blush in embarrassment. It made her wonder if possibly she may have an eye for older men, which made her shake her head in disbelief.

Returning her attention to the candy she need to prepare, it didn't take long to season the candy and adding the potion to it and let it cool. The chocolate she formed into small balls and coated them with the two remaining potions. She felt adequately pleased with all the confections done so far. Then it dawned on her, that the whole point of kipping the books in the first place was to find a charm to determine if an item had been tampered with. With all her resolve, she walked to the office. "Excuse me, Professor. The sweets are completed and I was wondering if you possibly teach me a charm for tamper detection."

To his credit, if Snape was annoyed with her request, he didn't express it. He put the quill he was using to write a possible correspondence, because it was piece of parchment covered in his very familiar spikey handwriting, and joined Hermione in the lab.

"It's a fairly common type charm. But has to be done correctly or your results will vary." He did a few careful wand flicks over the chocolate balls, while murmuring a incantation, and a soft blue green light emitted from his wand. "If the wand is blue or green there is a harmful potion in or on it. If it's yellow or orange it's free from a harmful potion." He repeated the same charm on the loaf, just demonstrate that even a potion cooked into the food stuff will test positive.

He took that moment to write down the incantation so she could practice. Handed it to her and waited. She read the words aloud at first, then she went to trying her hand at the wand movements. But it felt wrong, and soon enough a huff sound came from the man watching. He moved stand to the side of her. She took a deep breath his large hand came around and took control of hers and wand. He moved her hand in the right movements. Repeating it a few times until he didn't lead the movements. Then he took a step back. Hermione felt a momentary upsetting loss as his hand left hers. Mentally she scolded herself again for it's irrational behavior and finally cast the charm successfully. She beamed at her accomplishment, but didn't date try to get validation from her potions professor, since she knew there would be none.

"It is early still. However, you won't be expected back here until Monday. Therefore no need to start on the other potions now. You are dismissed." Snape said. Hermione nodded and before she left she had to ask.

"What are you going to do with those?"

"I will incinerate them. It seems to be the wisest decision."

Hermione knew it was the right way to go, but still felt a little disappointed that all the hard work she put into this was done for naught. "It's for the best. Enjoy your weekend, Sir." She replied respectfully and left the dungeon for the weekend.