A/N These short chapters are beginning to get on my nerves… but if I write longer ones it'll take me ages between posting. Hmm…
Snape was still reading when Hermione emerged ten minutes later. Women, in his experience, generally took at least another twenty minutes to get ready, so he was slightly unprepared when she came out so soon. She looked like she always did – always had, save for last night. He half expected her to ask a question, or to say something suitably Gryffindor and inane to cover the awkwardness of the situation. Instead, and surprisingly out of character for her, he thought, she just stood silently, not moving at all.
Even after two minutes of his gaze she did not fidget, and it was this that made Snape realise that the girl in front of him was not the same girl who plagued him daily in class. Rather, that girl was a part of an elaborate act that she had created, designed to cover things that nobody would ever dream she was hiding. She probably did not know how to act, now that he had seen through her mask. If the situations were reversed, he would probably be acting the same was as she. The irony of the situation was not lost on him.
"I assume you found everything to your satisfaction, Miss Granger?" he asked of her, an eyebrow raised.
"I did, Professor."
"Very well. I have ordered breakfast, and it shall arrive presently. In the meantime, I suggest you seat yourself."
"Thank you, Professor." She did sit down, clumsily on a seat opposite Snape. She wanted to confront him, then. Despite the utter stillness of her body after she sat, her hands were wringing themselves in her lap. She followed his gaze and stilled her hands immediately, but he had caught the lapse and saw a glimpse of what she was trying to a hide. She would make a good spy, he thought ruefully. She was almost as good as hiding emotions as he, and so much younger.
The house elves, as usual, had impeccable timing, for the breakfast arrived on trays just then. "Help yourself," Snape told her curtly. "We will speak after we eat."
They ate then, a full breakfast of eggs, bacon, and toast that the house elves had cooked to perfection. Breakfast ordered from the elves was generally superior to that which one ordered in the Great Hall, Snape had found out, and this was the reason he rarely made morning appearances. That was the reason he gave to the other staff, at any rate. His real reasons came more from antisocial tendencies than culinary appreciation.
Snape finished, and noticed that Hermione was still eating slowly. Prolonging the inevitable, he decided coolly, and then said as much, not unkindly. Not kindly either, though. He rather thought that any more "kindness" on his part might result with Hermione believing she was hallucinating.
"Perhaps so, Professor," Hermione admitted. "I want to thank you for bringing me here last night, and not to the hospital wing. This is a matter I wish to deal with myself, and don't want the Headmaster or the nurse involved in."
Or me, I'll warrant, Snape thought wryly.
