Dear Reader.
This is my second go at an SS/HG fan fic. I have no idea as yet how many
Chapters it's going to suffer with - probably no more than 10 (all things
going well) and hopefully posted weekly, or more regularly depending on how
boring the rest of my life gets!
I would really love to hear what you think and any ideas you have for what might happen in the rest of the story. And while I think about it - I know it looks fairly obvious that darling Severus is going to be her perfect match - CONSTANT VIGILANCE! Not everything is as simple as that.
This story will have Remus Lupin back as the DADA Professor simply because he's great. Snape will not suffer from self pity, but he might inherit my liking for a good whisky (
Also, as yet this story has no title - help?
Chapter One: Don't Ask Questions That you Don't Want to Know the Answers to.
"SNAPE!" bellowed Ron, spitting his pumpkin juice a record distance across the Gryffindor common room.
Harry nodded, thoughtfully. He had expected this reaction and he knew this wasn't going to be easy.
"Well think about it! - They are both intelligent, sarcastic, bookish and take their work FAR too seriously. Remove the grease and the frizz and it's a match made in heaven"
Ron just stared at his best friend, unblinking and mouth set to catch flies. This is a joke - must be a joke.good ol' Harry. But when Ron started to laugh the look on his friends face told him he was deathly serious.
"You're serious aren't you" it wasn't so much a question as a statement of his disbelief.
. The game had started innocently enough, resulting in more than a few red faces, a couple of budding romances and an awful lot of sniggers.
In the first week back after the summer holiday, Lavender Brown had produced a sort of 'Love Tarot' deck she had found in a Muggle shop. The idea being, (with a little non Muggle enchantment), that the card you chose would match with the card picked by your perfect match! Lavenders' set seemed to have an infinite variety. What was then meant to happen was, that with the aid of a book, you could calculate a perfect match. The new and improved set did away with the book and when a connection was made, the persons involved were showered with golden confetti.
There wasn't much in the way of a surprise when Ginny Weasley had been showered in over-zealous golden hearts and flowers when a rather shy Harry Potter had chosen a card under the coercion of EVERYONE in Gryffindor tower. And even less surprise when he had been spied kissing said Miss Weasley up on the little used third floor by an annoyingly loud mouthed Peeves, who had appointed him self Cupids' messenger, zapping round the school informing everyone of the latest hot coupling.
It hadn't been long before the game had spread through the school with students actually queuing up to have a go!
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
It was a Thursday when it happened.
The hall had been filled with the sounds of happy laughter and excessive giggling that morning as Hermione Granger made her way to breakfast. Lavender had been contemplating the possibility of charging for the cards use, Neville had been staring hopelessly at his remembrall and Harry and Ron had a look not seen since the departure of the legendary Weasley twins two years previously.
Hermione sat herself and her coffee (white, half a teaspoon of sugar) apart from the rest of the seventh year, her nose, predictably enough, buried in a book.
At 18 years old the Hermione had filled out nicely. She had curves where it was expected and carried her self with grace and elegance. Her eyes sparkled, her hips swayed and her mane of hair had grown long enough to pull out the worst of the curls. The know-it-all would have been subject to many admirers had it not been for the fact that every time she opened her mouth, something clever came out. She was still best friends with Harry Potter and Ron Weasley, and while they loved her and she loved them, it was purely platonic and it was as far as her relationship with boys went. She'd tried, but failed, to keep up the level of interest out side of books and learning that it took to have a relationship. It was no secret the Neville Longbottom had a crush like a ton of bricks on her, but every time he went to say something to her, it was like some one had cast petrificus totalus on him - even Hermione had grinned about it in private, whilst in public being the dutiful Head Girl, she had chastised her friends for making fun of him.
As she turned a page of her book and reached out blindly for her cup of coffee, she was unaware of the eyes watching her.
Hermione for her part had flatly refused to touch any of the cards, exclaiming that it was all ".silly and childish and pointless." - If any one had cared to put a call in to Doctor Freud, they would have been told that this was because she was scared. Not scared that her perfect match might be someone like, say - Crabbe or Goyle, but scared that she didn't HAVE a perfect match. Scared that the cards would tell her that there was no one with whom she was destined to be.
Besides which, Hermione Granger didn't believe in destiny - what a load of rot.
Unsurprisingly, Headmaster Dumbledore had been tickled by the new game that had been bought in to the castle. As much as he loved Valentines, he always thought it a shame that it only lasted one day. So the enjoyment he now saw lifted his spirits. With the end of summer coming it was good to have so much warmth radiating from within the castle. However, not all the teachers took this wistful point of view.
Snape - for example.
He had not only forbidden the cards or any talk of them in his dungeon classroom, he had even gone as far as to ban them from the Slytherin common room - which only managed to bring out the worst (or best) in Slytherin sneakiness.
Two pairs of eyes watched closely as Hermione reached out for her coffee.
In the next second there came a 'CRACK,' a gasp, a shriek and a smash.
SOMEBODY (innocent faces abound surrounded her) had placed one of those bloody cards on her cup. The resulting 'CRACK' had been the magic taking hold and registering one 'Miss. Hermione Granger' ready to be matched up. The shriek and smash happened simultaneously as she hurled her cup at her classmates - no one in particular but the whole lot of them.
"JUST LEAVE ME THE BLOODY WELL ALONE!" And with that she stalked out of the room. You could almost see the smoke pouring from her ears.
Ashen faced, everyone turned to look at Harry and Ron
"Bugger it! I think we might have gone too far this time"
Ron sat agog. "What's got her so highly strung?"
After a few moments - about the length of time it took for everyone to catch on to what had happened, all eyes were turned to Lavender, who had the pack of cards held in her right hand and a slice of toast dripping with marmalade in the other. Nearly everyone had had a go by now. Hermione's perfect match ought to now be drenched in hearts and flowers - but there was nothing. Not a thing.
Horror dawned on Harry as he let out a low mournful moan that Professor Lupin at full moon would have been proud of.
"'Mione doesn't think she HAS a perfect partner!!" Ron snorted
"Looks like she was right" The look the rest of the Gryffindors gave him would have killed a basilisk.
"Poor Hermione!" this from Lavender, who held out her pack of cards with a look of disgust on her face
A nervous and obviously dejected Neville asked, "Well, who HASN'T had a go?
I would really love to hear what you think and any ideas you have for what might happen in the rest of the story. And while I think about it - I know it looks fairly obvious that darling Severus is going to be her perfect match - CONSTANT VIGILANCE! Not everything is as simple as that.
This story will have Remus Lupin back as the DADA Professor simply because he's great. Snape will not suffer from self pity, but he might inherit my liking for a good whisky (
Also, as yet this story has no title - help?
Chapter One: Don't Ask Questions That you Don't Want to Know the Answers to.
"SNAPE!" bellowed Ron, spitting his pumpkin juice a record distance across the Gryffindor common room.
Harry nodded, thoughtfully. He had expected this reaction and he knew this wasn't going to be easy.
"Well think about it! - They are both intelligent, sarcastic, bookish and take their work FAR too seriously. Remove the grease and the frizz and it's a match made in heaven"
Ron just stared at his best friend, unblinking and mouth set to catch flies. This is a joke - must be a joke.good ol' Harry. But when Ron started to laugh the look on his friends face told him he was deathly serious.
"You're serious aren't you" it wasn't so much a question as a statement of his disbelief.
. The game had started innocently enough, resulting in more than a few red faces, a couple of budding romances and an awful lot of sniggers.
In the first week back after the summer holiday, Lavender Brown had produced a sort of 'Love Tarot' deck she had found in a Muggle shop. The idea being, (with a little non Muggle enchantment), that the card you chose would match with the card picked by your perfect match! Lavenders' set seemed to have an infinite variety. What was then meant to happen was, that with the aid of a book, you could calculate a perfect match. The new and improved set did away with the book and when a connection was made, the persons involved were showered with golden confetti.
There wasn't much in the way of a surprise when Ginny Weasley had been showered in over-zealous golden hearts and flowers when a rather shy Harry Potter had chosen a card under the coercion of EVERYONE in Gryffindor tower. And even less surprise when he had been spied kissing said Miss Weasley up on the little used third floor by an annoyingly loud mouthed Peeves, who had appointed him self Cupids' messenger, zapping round the school informing everyone of the latest hot coupling.
It hadn't been long before the game had spread through the school with students actually queuing up to have a go!
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
It was a Thursday when it happened.
The hall had been filled with the sounds of happy laughter and excessive giggling that morning as Hermione Granger made her way to breakfast. Lavender had been contemplating the possibility of charging for the cards use, Neville had been staring hopelessly at his remembrall and Harry and Ron had a look not seen since the departure of the legendary Weasley twins two years previously.
Hermione sat herself and her coffee (white, half a teaspoon of sugar) apart from the rest of the seventh year, her nose, predictably enough, buried in a book.
At 18 years old the Hermione had filled out nicely. She had curves where it was expected and carried her self with grace and elegance. Her eyes sparkled, her hips swayed and her mane of hair had grown long enough to pull out the worst of the curls. The know-it-all would have been subject to many admirers had it not been for the fact that every time she opened her mouth, something clever came out. She was still best friends with Harry Potter and Ron Weasley, and while they loved her and she loved them, it was purely platonic and it was as far as her relationship with boys went. She'd tried, but failed, to keep up the level of interest out side of books and learning that it took to have a relationship. It was no secret the Neville Longbottom had a crush like a ton of bricks on her, but every time he went to say something to her, it was like some one had cast petrificus totalus on him - even Hermione had grinned about it in private, whilst in public being the dutiful Head Girl, she had chastised her friends for making fun of him.
As she turned a page of her book and reached out blindly for her cup of coffee, she was unaware of the eyes watching her.
Hermione for her part had flatly refused to touch any of the cards, exclaiming that it was all ".silly and childish and pointless." - If any one had cared to put a call in to Doctor Freud, they would have been told that this was because she was scared. Not scared that her perfect match might be someone like, say - Crabbe or Goyle, but scared that she didn't HAVE a perfect match. Scared that the cards would tell her that there was no one with whom she was destined to be.
Besides which, Hermione Granger didn't believe in destiny - what a load of rot.
Unsurprisingly, Headmaster Dumbledore had been tickled by the new game that had been bought in to the castle. As much as he loved Valentines, he always thought it a shame that it only lasted one day. So the enjoyment he now saw lifted his spirits. With the end of summer coming it was good to have so much warmth radiating from within the castle. However, not all the teachers took this wistful point of view.
Snape - for example.
He had not only forbidden the cards or any talk of them in his dungeon classroom, he had even gone as far as to ban them from the Slytherin common room - which only managed to bring out the worst (or best) in Slytherin sneakiness.
Two pairs of eyes watched closely as Hermione reached out for her coffee.
In the next second there came a 'CRACK,' a gasp, a shriek and a smash.
SOMEBODY (innocent faces abound surrounded her) had placed one of those bloody cards on her cup. The resulting 'CRACK' had been the magic taking hold and registering one 'Miss. Hermione Granger' ready to be matched up. The shriek and smash happened simultaneously as she hurled her cup at her classmates - no one in particular but the whole lot of them.
"JUST LEAVE ME THE BLOODY WELL ALONE!" And with that she stalked out of the room. You could almost see the smoke pouring from her ears.
Ashen faced, everyone turned to look at Harry and Ron
"Bugger it! I think we might have gone too far this time"
Ron sat agog. "What's got her so highly strung?"
After a few moments - about the length of time it took for everyone to catch on to what had happened, all eyes were turned to Lavender, who had the pack of cards held in her right hand and a slice of toast dripping with marmalade in the other. Nearly everyone had had a go by now. Hermione's perfect match ought to now be drenched in hearts and flowers - but there was nothing. Not a thing.
Horror dawned on Harry as he let out a low mournful moan that Professor Lupin at full moon would have been proud of.
"'Mione doesn't think she HAS a perfect partner!!" Ron snorted
"Looks like she was right" The look the rest of the Gryffindors gave him would have killed a basilisk.
"Poor Hermione!" this from Lavender, who held out her pack of cards with a look of disgust on her face
A nervous and obviously dejected Neville asked, "Well, who HASN'T had a go?