Chapter 8


Deep breath in first...

Now let it out...

Take in another slightly small breath…

And now let it out…

It won't hurt to cross your forefinger over your middle finger either, Hermione. For this, at least just use that Muggle portion of yourself that you put aside whenever you are at Hogwarts, and believe in such a thing as luck, determined by the silly acts of tightly holding eyes closed and crossing fingers. You'll need to believe in luck, because what you are about to do, is take an extremely liberal chance. The very likely outcome of you taking this chance, is that he will tell you (for good measure) to never return to him after this, but, you should at least hope for luck that he does it in a dismissive, not humiliating way.

Now all right, Hermione, take a final step forward and speak before you lose your nerve.

'Professor Snape?' she tentatively calls.

She had been ready to carry on with the pressing question following the testing call of her name, however, the professor surprises her quite the bit, when he promptly looks up at her. Feeling caught off guard and showered in stunning surprise, her plan to ask him disappears from her mind, leaving that space momentarily empty, while his dark eyes quietly study her, probably wondering what question could possibly the reason for her staying behind after class.

In no way can she own the claim that she knows Professor Snape well, because she truly doesn't, it's only that since spending her most of her free periods brewing with and for him, she can somewhat gauge the meaning of that reaction from him. Like she previously thought, the worst could be him refusing to hear her out, although on the other hand, he could also shatter her expectation of him by doing something that she believes he is not capable of doing.

'Miss Granger,' he finally releases from his mouth, 'whatever questions you have, you should have asked them during the lesson. I will not be answering any question that you have to ask.'

'No, Professor, it's not like that,' she hurriedly shakes her head. 'I only want to ask if I may be excused from tomorrow's free period.'

Making the corners of his eyes slant just the smallest bit, he sets the heaviest stare on her, that she has ever experienced from him so far, and that is including all the times during their private brewing times, where he simply refused to answer her with words, because apparently his eyes were more communicative than his words. His heavy makes her all the more nervous, and so she chooses to explain herself to him.

'I wouldn't ask if it wasn't completely necessary. Please, Professor.'

For just a moment more, in silence still, he continues to consider her, not giving any of his thoughts away through the expression on his face. After that moment passes, however, as though her words mean nothing to him, he drops his head back down to his work, at t the same time also making a waving and flowing gesture with his hand in her direction.

'Profes-' she curiously starts to ask what he means, only to quickly retain herself.

Think, Hermione, she mentally scolds herself. He wasn't rude to you, and the worst that you had been fearing has not happened yet, which means that you still have that miraculous grace of being somewhat welcomed during brewing, so do not spoil this. Take his dismissal as permission to be absent, and don't think more about it.

You normally would not be as bold as to make the mistake of assuming to grasp his meaning, you know that, but you know that today is a different case. You know that you need to have free time tomorrow, so just take what you are being offered and run out of here before he changes his mind.

'Thank you, Professor,' pushes out of her mouth as she uncrosses her fingers. 'I will see you next week.'

Following the rushed words from her mouth, not necessarily interested to hang around and wait for him to make a weak yet dismissive snoring sound, she happily runs out of his classroom, to catch up with Harry and Ron. Also, in the event that he changes her mind, as he has played to do in the previous times that she has asked something of him, she cannot afford to dally around him. As she catches up with her friends, she squeezes herself between them and then loosely wraps her arms over both of their shoulders. Of her two friends, Ron is the first one to study her from his angle of sight.

'You're smiling,' Ron observes.

The interesting thing about his observation, is that it is reaches her ears with a note of distaste. within his tone. She would ordinarily give him an equally distasteful look, to contend with him, but for the moment, she is too glad to allow him to get under her skin. Well, too much under her skin, she means.

'I am,' she agrees. 'That's not a problem.'

'It's just not the reaction I would expect from someone coming from speaking to Snape,' Ron explains.

She has the suspicion that he is eyeing her suspiciously, and mostly because of that, she removes her arms from around their shoulders. Really, with Ron's behaviour, the air surrounding her is starting to become heavy, and since she doesn't want his negativity seeping into her skin through the contact that she's making with him.

'Well,' she starts, 'he just said yes to something that I asked him, so how can I not be smiling about that?'

Very tactfully, she's avoiding to say what she asked of Professor Snape, because easily, that would make her friends question her on why she needs to be excused from the brewing period in the first place, and no way is she willing to get into why she needs that free lesson for herself. She is allowed to have her privacy, she believes.

'Snape seems to say yes to you all the time now,' Harry curiously comments for the first time since she caught up with them. 'I wonder why?'

Thankful though she is of Harry speaking and from being questioned about what's so important that she had to ask Professor Snape, she still frowns and clicks her tongue at his accusation specifically. Really, there Harry goes with his suspicion of Professor Snape again.

'You two honestly need to stop with that,' she reprimands them. 'I already told you that he hardly speaks to me during our lessons. It's been months, so he can't have an agenda if he doesn't talk to me.'

'You're way too trusting, Hermione,' Harry argues. 'He can still be planning something even if he doesn't talk to you. Think about it, Hermione. All you do is brew potions for him. You said that sometimes he helps you, and sometimes he leaves you by yourself. Doesn't that seem all strange to you? Snape's not exactly the trusting sort, you know.'

'As a matter of fact, Harry-' she begins, about to make the attempt to convince him that Professor Snape wouldn't try anything strange with her, because he doesn't trust her, but Harry cuts her off before she can get to that.

'Anyway,' he quickly interrupts, 'are you coming with us to Hogsmeade on Saturday? You know, since Snape won't be keeping you?'

'We don't brew on Saturdays,' she reminds him. 'You know that.'

'You never know. With Snape, anything is possible,' Ron mutters darkly.

'Well, he's not making me stay, is he?' she quickly fires at Ron, just as quickly shutting up any door of opportunity that he could have to go back and forth with her, by moving back into the Hogsmeade topic. 'Anyway, I do want to come to Hogsmeade, but…'

'You have to come with us,' Harry pleads with her, even stilling his steps, in turn making her and Ron stop with him.

'It's not that easy, Harry. I... There's…' she pauses, mostly to find the right words to appease the situation.

'There's what?' Ron curiously wants to know. 'I thought you just said that Snape said yes to you. There's nothing stopping you, so let's go. It's the last weekend before Harry's last task anyway.'

For his information, Hermione thinks as she fixes a stern look at Ron, Professor Snape allowing her the free lesson tomorrow, has nothing to do with Hogsmeade on Saturday. What he, Ronald, doesn't know, is that those are two completely separate things, and if he truly has any real interest to know, she would easily tell him that Professor Snape isn't the reason that she will, or will not be going with them to Hogsmeade.

'I said I want to, Ron,' she stresses after the silent moment. 'It's not that I don't want to. I just don't know if I will be able to come. There's just something that I have to do first.'

'I swear, Hermione,' Ron audibly expresses his disbelief, shaking his head about it as well, 'you and your books…'

Her books? He's incorrect, as usual, but well, if that's what he's choosing to believe about her refusal to confirm her Hogsmeade attendance with them, then this one time, gladly, she will not correct him. It's simply easier, and hugely convenient not to.


26Chapters


In the end, she went to the village with the boys. Had she not gone with them, they would have pestered her with nonsense about it being Snape's fault or they would've tried to manipulate her into going with them, using Harry and the Tournament as an excuse. And so, to avoid all that, she went with them, but as soon as they reached Hogwarts, she went looking for Viktor.

Finding him, she notes how agitated he looks. His usually serious-to-nearly scowling face is expressive beyond what she's seen him display so far. Whether that is a good thing or not, she doesn't properly get to ponder, because upon seeing her, his expression changes. It could be relief, she reasons as she moves closer to him, and yet, that's not at all how relief is supposed to look like, is it? Relief shouldn't look like a longing display added to a faint smile, should it? Also, him all of a sudden pulling her with urgency into the empty classroom, is more desperation than relief, isn't it?

'You came,' he softly says into her hair as his arms surround her.

Although the hug took her by complete surprise, previous experience with him has made her partially attuned to his ways of affection, that she nearly always recovers fast enough from her shock, to meet him in his affection. Having recovered, she hugs him back, at the same time making sure to lock the door while in the embrace. This is Viktor, and he tends to kiss her so suddenly that anyone could easily walk in on them doing that. She doesn't mind it so much that they kiss, in fact, she has been getting better at it, but she doesn't want her intimacy known by anyone that has nothing to do with it. What's between her and Viktor is only between her and Viktor.

'Of course, I came,' she responds, waiting only a moment more before to pull out of the hug.

He takes the cue from her, carefully stepping away from her to tell her, 'I vas vorried.'

'I only went to Hogsmeade,' she assures him with a smile.

'I know,' he replies, 'but there has been talk.'

'About?'

Not answering her at first, he gently takes her hand and then leads her to a desk and chair. As she makes the move to take a seat in the chair, he holds out his arm to stop her, and then follows the action by placing his hands on her waist to place her on the desk. A little motion later, and he's the one in the chair.

'Tell me what people are talking about.'

'It's about the Dark Lord.'

From how serious he has his face set, she can only imagine that this Dark Lord person is the very Voldemort that she's come to in part defeat for the last three years. It's fitting, she supposes, although she still needs to confirm that they are on the same page.

'Voldemort?'

'Please do not say his name,' he begs, sounding quite weak even though he didn't flinch when she said his name. 'Ve haf been taught not to say it.'

The entire wizarding world has been taught not to say it, it seems, but no one has ever bothered to tell them why that's the case. She's often wondered why people fear his name so. Could it be that they attached horrible memories to his name, and so whenever they said it, the barrage of those memories came back to them without mercy? Oh, how she wishes that there was a new edition of witchcraft and wizardry history. Voldemort, or the Dark Lord, should be added into that edition.

'All right,' she concedes. 'Who's been talking about You-Know-Know?'

'My headmaster.'

He begins to tell her that the Durmstrang headmaster has been uneasy and restless because he knows that the supposed 'Dark Lord' is about to return. Apparently, he's been refusing to say how he knows, but he is quite sure that the Dark Lord is about to return - it's only a matter of time. With an open mind, hoping to get as much useful information as she can, she listens to him.

'You are Muggleborn,' he says, looking intently at until she nods. 'I like you bery much, and I am afraid for you.'

To him, the blood status of someone is nothing, neither does he like dictatorship at all. Durmstrang may have a reputation for being harsh and well versed in the Dark Arts, but they are not necessarily taught to discriminate. Dark Arts are frowned upon, but how else are they do know the harsh truths of life, if they cannot identify them to begin with?

'You do have a point there,' she agrees, 'but I think that people just don't want their children learning about horrific things, do they? Muggles for example only have a small portion of a class called Life Skills dedicated to talking about drugs and sex. Dumbledore once said to Harry that fear of speaking the name of something, only increases the fear of the thing itself. Maybe that's why no one wants to talk about the Dark Arts, drugs and sex. Because they fear what the knowledge and exposure of those things can lead to.'

He answers her, leading to a longer discussion about Dark Arts and the Dark Lord. It's the one conversation with depth that they've had so far, and she is wholly invested in it. Near the end of their conversation, he wants her to promise that she will always keep in contact with him even when he returns home. Or perhaps, if she'd like for him to teach her some defensive spells that are probably not taught at Hogwarts, he could. While she briefly considers telling him no, thank you, it wouldn't hurt to know more spells than she already does.

'Okay,' she accepts, 'but what will we do once you go back home?'

What she means to say is that she cannot have a boyfriend who is that far away from her. Well, she can, but it would be most inconvenient, wouldn't it? To be honest, she'd rather not experience it. He agrees that they cannot continue to see each other, because he is never really stable in one place, but they have to keep in contact, they should remain friends, at least.


26Chapters


She meets with Viktor again two days before the last task, but only briefly. After the task, she'll make sure that they have a longer time to meet and finalise their relationship. For now, she only wants to wish him luck. That they can have one last proper kiss before the end of the Tournament as well as the end of their relationship, may also be a reason, but she would never admit that aloud.