A.N.: Multilingualism is a brilliant beta. End of story. ;-)

Chapter 25: Confusing observations

Severus sent the disillusioned girl out of his office before he left it a few minutes later himself. It wasn't far from his chambers to the classrooms and when he finally arrived, all the students were already waiting in front of the classroom door. By the look of it, Potter and his red-haired sidekick had already missed Hermione as they seemed to be bombarding her with nosy questions, which the girl answered with a good-natured eye-roll. She really had the patience of a saint. If he was in her shoes, he'd long ago suffocated them in their sleep and blamed somebody else.

"Today we are going to start brewing Veritaserum," he announced after he had positioned himself in front of the class. "Making it is a long process and I am pretty sure most of you won't even be able to produce a proper base for the potion, let alone make a usable end product, as the potion is a difficult one. For many of you, it will probably be the most difficult potion you ever attempt, as I don't see a lot of you continuing for your NEWTs."

Some of those dunderheads were actually stupid enough to nod at this. He snorted inwardly. "I most likely will not have to tell you what Veritaserum is used for, as it is one of the most commonly known potions. Can anyone tell me, how many drops of the potions are needed on an adult for the potion to take effect?"

Most of those idiots just stared back at him like sheep. Only Malfoy and Hermione raised their hands, which made his choice pretty clear. It wasn't like he could ever favour a muggle-born over a Malfoy if he wanted to keep his position as a Death Eater spy. "Mr. Malfoy?"

"The exact dosage depends on the weight of the person. For a man of average build three drops are usually enough," the boy answered in a self-assured tone.

Severus nodded. "Very good, Mr. Malfoy. Five points to Slytherin," he said and continued. "Usually more than five drops will be enough for somebody to lose consciousness, seven are enough to kill a person."

Most of them nodded, but almost no one except Hermione felt the need to take notes, which was typical for this generation's arrogance. He rolled his eyes.

"Who of you can tell me, if Veritaserum can also be used to interrogate other species like for example Vampires or house-elves?" he continued to ask. The answer to the question was not in the books and so he wasn't surprised that none of them raised their hand. It was the opener he was looking for.

"Well, Miss Granger? As you usually feel the need to share your wisdom with the class, you're welcome to do so now," he said and looked at the little witch with a wolfish grin. The action let him feel a little tug of guilt in his heart, but he hastily pushed it aside. He was on a mission after all.

Hermione looked at him with hard eyes. "I don't know, Sir," she replied politely but he could already see the pink colour of her cheeks. She didn't like it when he made her look silly in front of the class. But he had to keep up his role, after all.

He shook his head with a disappointed sigh. "How disappointing," he said with a bored tone and turned away from her. Then he flicked his wand and let the instructions for the first part of the potion appear on the board behind him. "Well, I recommend all of you read these instructions very carefully. They are not similar to the instructions in the book so I advise you to take some notes. As your homework, I expect a 10-inch-essay on why I made the changes to the recipe with your guesses on the effect those might have on the potion."

Some of them nodded and Hermione was already scanning the instructions on the board with her eyes.

"After you finish taking your notes, you can begin to brew. Try not to hurt your classmates in the process." He specifically focussed on Longbottom while saying those words, but he was pretty sure that the oaf would still manage to melt his cauldron today. Severus had just the unmistakable feeling; it was one of these days.

One after another the teenagers began their work and by the time most of them had finished copying his instructions from the board, Hermione and Draco had already arranged all their ingredients on the table and started brewing. Then, ten minutes later everyone was busy enough, that he could continue his mission. Like it was his habit he started strolling through the classroom and when he reached Hermione's table, it was only a little motion with his hand that made the additional ingredient slip into her cauldron. It was just a little wing of a firefly, but the effect was impressive if also totally harmless. Just as Severus had reached the end of the row, there was a huge fountain that arose from her cauldron and sprinkled its contents like a fine mist on every surface and utensil in Hermione's reach as well as the girl herself. The little witch stumbled back from her table with a surprised squeak and looked at the mess with wide, teary eyes.

"Miss Granger!" he bellowed and strode back to her. Then he built himself up in front of her table and sneered: "What in the name of Merlin have you done, you clumsy chit? It says one leaf of the moon thistle, not two!"

The girl stared at him with wide eyes and a trembling bottom lip and his heart gave another warning tug. But he brushed it aside and continued: "One should mean by the number of books you're ingesting you should be able to read such a simple instruction."

At that, something in her expression snapped and suddenly her soft, brown eyes became stormy and defiant. Finally. Merlin, he had given her reason enough to lose her temper. "Well, Professor," she bit out with clenched teeth, "then you should probably start working on your handwriting, as I am clearly not the only one who has problems making something out of it."

Several students around her gasped in shock and even Weasley looked at her like she had suddenly lost her mind talking to him like that. He could have laughed out aloud because considering that his writing had clearly gotten more and more sloppy over the years, the girl was totally right. But he couldn't very well agree with her in front of their gaping classmates.

He looked at her with a raised brow. "Five points from Gryffindor," he said calmly and looked at her with cold eyes. "For your disrespect. Now you'll clean up this mess, by hand if you please."

She looked at him with an angry expression. "And when shall I finish my potion, Sir?"

The corner of his mouth twitched, but he was pretty sure only Hermione was able to see it. "I thought that was fairly obvious, Miss Granger. You'll be in detention with me this evening and every following evening this week. There you'll not only get the chance to finally start your potion, but you'll have numerous chances to learn to decipher my handwriting."

She looked at him with a defiant expression on her face but didn't say a word in return. Instead, she made an angry noise in the back of her throat and stormed to the sink, to grab some cleaning supplies. Severus could hear his Slytherins chuckle in the back of the room, but interestingly Malfoy was not one of them – a fact that he'd analyse later. Because he was pretty sure that his godson would have usually loved this kind of display.

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"Merlin, Hermione," Ron said when they finally made up their way into the Great Hall. It was time for lunch now and even though Hermione had been prepared for Severus giving her detention, she still had problems to wrap her head around what happened. "I can't believe you told Snape to work on his handwriting. This was probably the funniest and scariest thing you've ever done."

Hermione looked at him with a raised brow. "You found it funny?"

Ron snorted. "Yup. I bet it's the first time someone told him, that his instructions are almost impossible to read."

Harry hummed in agreeance. "Yeah, though I never expected you'd be the one to do it, Hermione."

"Do what?" a curious voice asked from behind and a moment later another pair of Weasleys strolled past them and looked at her with a curious expression. It only took Ron a matter of minutes to proudly repeat the story to them. The twins followed his tale with mischievously shining eyes.

"You should have seen it: Hermione telling him off while she was covered in green soot from her cauldron. She looked like a wet, grumpy cat," Ron finished his story with an amused chuckle. Hermione looked at him with a dark expression.

"You forget to mention the fact that I'm in detention with him for the whole week now, again," she said and sighed dramatically. "Merlin, if the Professor didn't already hate me, I'm pretty sure he does now." It was a big, fat lie, Hermione realized, but somehow she almost enjoyed constructing her tale. Merlin, Severus had really made a skilled liar out of her. But letting everybody think they hated each other would only help to disguise their secret friendship.

Harry snorted. "Well, Snape definitely hates me but there's only so much he can do. So don't worry. You already survived two weeks of detention with him so this can't be worse, huh?" He put his arm around her shoulder and pulled her close.

Hermione sighed. "No. But I really don't fancy making the potion while he breathes down my neck. I'll probably cut my finger off or something."

The twins looked at her with an amused glint in their eyes. "We could sell you some Puking Pastilles or Nosebleed Nougat if you like. You could try to bleed all over his robes or something," Fred offered with a snort but Hermione just looked at him with a tired sigh. She really wasn't in the mood for buying any of their joke products after they had used them to trick her.

"And get another week of detention in return?" she asked and shook her head. "No thanks. I'm in enough trouble as it is."

Fred and George looked at her with a good-natured chuckle and smiled. "Probably," George said. "When you continue like that you'll get into more detentions than Fred and I this year. And we can't have that, can we?" He winked at her and for a moment the sight of it made her belly flutter. But Hermione squashed the feeling immediately. She was still mad at them and wouldn't fall victim to their charms that easily again.

"No," she said brusquely and as they had finally reached the Great Hall she sat down at her usual place, surrounded by Harry and Ron. "I don't want people to get the wrong impression after all."

For a moment Fred and George studied her with a confused expression on their faces, before the happy smile was back on their faces. All through the meal they tried to involve her into a discussion, but Hermione just wasn't in the mood. Not only was she still cross with them, but her thoughts drifted back to Severus and she couldn't help but ask herself if he was alright. But she guessed she'd find out in the evening. That long she'd just have to wait and distract herself.

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"Seems like our little chat with Hermione will have to wait until she has worked her way through her detentions," George said with a sigh.

Fred snorted. "The better I get to know her, the more I like her," he confessed and grinned. "Who would have thought that the bookish Prefect would tell off a teacher, nonetheless Snape. Sometimes I've got the feeling we didn't know her very well at all."

George nodded. "Yeah, the girl definitely has some secrets but considering that she barely talked to us during lunch I wonder if she'll ever share them with us."

Fred threw himself on his bed and rubbed his head. "Yeah… she seemed somewhat distanced, didn't she? But it's not like we've done something, right?"

His brother shrugged. "Not sure, she's been kind of strange ever since she saw us selling our Skiving Snack boxes. I reckon she's probably not very happy about it."

But Fred looked at him with wide eyes. "Oh shit. She's found out about the reason for our little trip to the Infirmary," he said and rubbed his face. "Merlin, of course! The girl is smart and it probably hasn't taken much for her to count one and one together."

George looked at him with a sour expression. "Yeah. And if there's something that can seriously piss Hermione Granger off, then it's being kept away from class."

His brother moaned. "Merlin, Georgie, we're fucked," he said and George nodded. His brother was right. They'd at least need to apologize to her and then it was still questionable if she'd trust them enough to let them in on another one of her secrets. Because at the moment they probably weren't here favourite persons at all and George had the feeling that it would need more than a little bit of Weasley charm to make her agree to teach them something like the disillusionment charm. Because they had just reminded her of their role as pranksters, which might not have been the cleverest thing to do.

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It was again 7 p.m. when Hermione found herself in front of Severus' door. She had chosen to remain in her school robes, to give the whole detention-story a bit more of an official touch, in case she was seen in front of his door. And really, just when she was about to knock, Malfoy strode past her and looked at her with an analysing gaze.

"Granger," he greeted her in a neutral tone. Hermione already prepared herself for some more insults from him or some sort of attack. But none came. He just nodded towards her and continued to walk down the corridor, like it was the most normal thing for him and Hermione followed his retreating figure with a confused blink. It took her some moments to snap out of her stupor but finally, she shook her head and knocked at her Professor's door. It was only a moment until the man appeared in front of her and as soon as his dark eyes fell on her, he stepped aside without saying a word. Hermione looked at the office behind him with curious eyes. Usually his desk was laden with essays or some other kind of reading material, but today everything was impeccably clean and not a single scroll of parchment was to be seen. Had it been like this in the morning? Hermione couldn't remember.

"What shall I do for my detention, Professor?" she asked him with a slight smile on her lips and she could have sworn that a shimmer of amusement glinted in his eyes.

"I told you, you'd be brewing the basis for Veritaserum, Miss Granger," he replied with a neutral tone. "We'll be using my private lab, come on."

He turned around without another word and Hermione followed him full of excitement. She'd never been to his private lab in real life and just knew the room from his memories. But when they entered it everything was exactly like she remembered.

Severus led her to a large workbench in the middle and Hermione could see that he had already laid out all the ingredients that she would need for making the potion. Hermione stepped closer. She expected that Severus would retreat to another part of the room to let her work alone, but when she looked at him she could see that he had already rolled up his sleeves.

"We'll be making the potion together?" she asked him in surprise. He looked at her with an amused glint in his eyes.

"Did you expect me to leave you alone with this mess after I ruined your potion? What kind of friend do you think I am?"

Hermione laughed. "A very sneaky one, that much is sure. What did you even do to let my potion go up like this? Because I'm pretty sure I didn't mess up the moon thistle."

Severus looked at her with a smug smile. "I put a wing of a firefly into your cauldron, a very fickle ingredient. Quite useful in some potions but most of them just have this sort of reaction."

"Severus Snape!" Hermione said in a mockingly scandalized tone, with her hands on her hips. "Who would have thought that you're a secret prankster? I am shocked."

Her friend chuckled. "Are you now? Well, only because I choose to appear as a humourless bastard doesn't mean that I really am. And now let's get started. I need a cup of tea on my sofa and you look like you could use one yourself."

Hermione chuckled darkly before taking one of the sharp knives he had laid out in front of them. "You have no idea."

They worked in amicable silence and Severus only spoke to her to give her some useful hints or supply her with useful additional information. Hermione found that she enjoyed working with him like that immensely. Brewing with Professor Snape on her side was nothing like she had described to Ron and Harry. Severus didn't breathe down her neck or question her abilities, he was simply a reliable and knowledgeable assistant at her side that let her take the lead. And so when their potion was finished, Hermione had the feeling to have learned so much more than during a regular potions lesson.

Within an hour they were finally back to the sofa in his sitting room and this time Hermione took the place at his side without hesitation. "How are you feeling?" she asked him and studied him with worried eyes. Now that she had time to look at him properly she could see, that his skin was even whiter than it usually was and even though his lips formed a little smile Severus looked … tired.

"Better than I should, considering the fact that the bastard almost killed me yesterday," he replied casually and took a sip from the cup of tea that suddenly appeared in front of him on the table. Usually, Severus made their tea himself and the fact that he let a house-elf do it for him today said enough about his actual condition.

Hermione nodded grimly. "Is there anything I can do?"

At that, he took her hand. "You already did more than you probably know. Without you, Hermione, he would have ended me yesterday. Somehow, your magic protected me from the worst damage. I don't know how, but I could definitely feel it."

She nodded nervously. "I tried sending my magic to you and I'm glad it worked. I think that's what this Open Link is actually meant for. It protects the person that's important to you."

Her friend blinked before he studied her with a serious expression. "And somehow I am this person to you." He shook his head in disbelief. "You know, yesterday I realized that I didn't want to die. Before, it never was like this. I was always prepared for things to end one day and usually I was okay with it."

"But now you're not?" Hermione asked him and searched for his eyes.

"No. I realized that I want to make it through this war and if it's just to live a normal life afterwards. One where I'm no longer a teacher and you're no longer my student. I want to help you to find your family and I want to see Potter's and Weasley's face when they realize that you're my friend. I haven't had a friend since I was a weird, skinny kid and I'm not ready to give this up, just because some crazy maniac plans to rule the world."

Somehow this little speech wasn't at all what she had expected from him, but Severus' words touched her heart and made her want to protect him, so he was able to do what he just told her. Hermione looked at him with moist eyes and before she could think about it twice, she threw her arms around him with a little sob. "Oh, Severus," she said, burying her face in his shoulder. She wanted to tell him that things would be alright in the end but both of them knew that none of them could know that at this point. And so she didn't say anything and simply held him close. They sat like that for a long while and just as she was about to let go of him, she saw that he looked at her with wide eyes.

"You're doing it again," he said, staring at her in confusion. "You're sending me your magic."

Hermione blinked before she paused and listened inside of her. And really, she could feel a small trickle of magic leave her body, not enough to weaken her, but now that she knew about it, it was definitely noticeable. "I… you're right. I didn't even realize I was doing it… shall I stop?"

He slowly shook his head. "No… 's a nice feeling actually… and it really helps against the pain. Feels like my body 's actually healing itself with your magic, but that can't be true."

She looked at him full of excitement. "No? What if it is? You said there's not much known about the Open Link… I mean, how many of us have there ever been? What if this ability just hasn't been documented yet?"

Severus looked at her with his eyes shining in excitement. "Could be possible. But Merlin, if that's true, who knows what else you'd be capable of?"

Hermione lifted her head from his shoulder and looked at him with an excited smile. "Care to find out? After all, we have a whole week of detention ahead of us. Or do you have a better idea how to use it? Scrubbing some cauldrons maybe?"

The man in her arms snorted. "Careful, Miss Granger, or I'll have to take some more points from Gryffindor for your cheek," he warned her with a smile on his lips.

Hermione chuckled. "Or you could give me more detention."

"Cheeky witch," he replied dryly but the smile on his lips told her that he wasn't offended at all.

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