Chapter 2

The next morning, Hermione had woken up especially early. She hardly could call what she did last night sleeping. Hours upon hours she spent sitting on the floor in the corner of her room, crying, or pacing around trying to make sense of the news. She finally gave up on trying to sleep and came downstairs to the Great Hall for an extremely early breakfast.

Sitting silently at the Gryffindor table, she pushed around the eggs, bacon, and berries that adorned the plate in front of her, with her fork. She hardly realized that other people had begun to fill the room. Along with the few students, no doubt eating a hurried meal before returning to their Common Room's to finish their homework, one of the most aggravating teachers in Hogwarts history had entered too.

Snape sat down at the High Table and looked around at the few students in the room. As usual, Malcolm Darwin and Hollie Sheaths from Ravenclaw, Dawn Lightning from Hufflepuff, and Bryan and Rhyan Collins from Slytherin were sitting at their respected tables. The Gryffindor table, which was usually empty seeing that they all enjoyed sleeping and never woke this early, had only one body at it: Hermione's.

Severus continued to watch the girl. His usual loathing of anything Gryffindor melted slightly as he noticed her unwillingness to eat, her untamed hair, and puffy eyes. She looked as if she hadn't slept at all last night. Now, as he knew by now, the lack of sleep couldn't have been from staying up doing homework, because that was always the first thing to be done in her eyes. He wondered if her current state had anything to do with the two meddlesome sidekicks of hers.

As silently as he'd entered, he stood from the table and walked down toward the lonely Gryffindor, his cloak billowing behind him as he walked. When he was within ten steps of the girl, he noticed the streaks on her cheeks and red eyes. So, she'd be crying. Snape thought to himself in a bemused way, iit must be that irrational Potter boy or the ever-annoying Weasley brat./i

Snape continued his quick-paced walk until he was standing behind Hermione. "Troubles, Miss Granger?" Snape's voice pulled Hermione out of her thoughts with a start.

"Excuse me, Professor?" Hermione sniffed and blinked a few times, obviously trying to shake the thoughts out of her mind.

"I said, if you had troubles, Miss Granger." She could hear the sneer in his voice and the knowing that there was something the know-it-all-Gryffindor couldn't handle.

"N…No, sir. There's… n...nothing troubling me, sir." It took every ounce of might in her system to fight back the tears and tremors that threatened to break her voice.

"Well then, if there is nothing to troubling you, I was wondering if you would assist me with something before your Potions class this morning." Snape's usual hatred towards the girl had been replaced with an almost sorrowful attitude.

Hermione blinked at the sudden invitation. She had never heard of Snape inviting one of his students to assist him with his potion making. After a moment of pondering the question, she finally answered her professor. "Yes, sir. I'll do anything I can to assist you."

With the answer he needed, he nodded in acceptance, and left the Great Hall in the ever-quick pace that was known only to him.

-*-*-*-*-*-

Thirty minutes later, Hermione had left the Great Hall and returned to her room. After a quick shower, she dried and pulled her hair back into a low ponytail, securing it with a hair-tie. She swiftly pulled on her underclothes, her Gryffindor uniform, and her Gryffindor-embroidered cloak. One last look in the mirror at her reflection, and she left the room.

Snape had been setting up the ingredients for the potion in his personal laboratory. Few people had the luxury to enter his personal space, but Hermione needed the extra attention. Minerva McGonagall, the head of Gryffindor House, had asked him to do her a favor. While Hermione was exceptional in all of her classes, Potions had to be one of her best. And that knowledge of Hogwarts best student is what got Snape into this mess. McGonagall had come to her at the most ungodly hour last night with the news of the Granger's deaths. Knowing the physical and emotional risk involved with this particular trauma, Minerva knew that Hermione would need something to get her mind off her parents and on something else. Mixing potions was exactly what she needed to do; it would require all her attention and give her something else to dwell on.

Asking Severus Snape to do the simple task of helping a student was probably the hardest part of the whole plan. Snape was very protective of his lab and ingredients and rarely let anyone look at them, much less touch them. But Minerva had begged the man, and he finally complied with the older woman. iDear God,/i he realized, iI'm doing a favor for a Gryffindor. What's next, giving compliments to Longbottom?/i

He didn't have much time to contemplate the thoughts, as there was a soft, yet rapid knocking on the door to his classroom.