A/N: School is starting soon, so I won't be able to update quite as
quickly. I am continuing the story, though, so don't worry about that! Just
don't expect the updates to occur in a very timely fashion.
Thanks to Lissie89, Draco-Malfoy-Severus-Luva, and DreamShadow1 for the wonderful reviews!
Big hug to my Beta, Lissie! Isn't she the best?
Disclaimer: I own nothing; J. K. Rowling owns everything. So what's new?
*************
Chapter 4 - 'Phase Three'
The trio left Snape alone for the next month. Hermione had been right; Snape was determined to figure out what was going on. It was obvious he suspected the trio more than everyone else who despised him. He watched all three of them constantly. He always had one eye on them during meals, in the classroom, and even in the corridors. Harry and Ron thought that Snape was also following them a little. Hermione, however, was too mad at the professor to notice the stalking. She knew exactly what their next move would be, but Snape's careful watching prevented her from taking action. Goodness knows she had tried, but Snape was always watching his back now. So when opportunity knocked one day, Hermione jumped at the chance to begin 'Phase Three.' Dinner had just ended, and the trio was heading to the common room when a voice rang out behind them.
"Professor Snape! Wait a moment please." Hermione whipped around to see McGonagall and Snape talking in the middle of the Entrance Hall. Snape's back was facing them. Hermione looked around quickly to see if anyone was watching them. There were students heading in every direction, talking loudly. It was perfect...Hermione pulled out her wand and, trying not to be obvious, murmured the spell quickly while her wand tip was pointed at Snape's back. She made sure the spell came in contact with him before turning and continuing up the stairs.
"Hermione, what was that?" Harry asked as they sat in corner chairs in the common room.
"The beginning of 'Phase Three.'" Harry and Ron, slightly wide-eyed, stared at Hermione. "How many 'phases' are there?" asked Ron.
"How ever many there needs to be."
"What spell did you use?" asked Harry.
"You'll just have to wait until breakfast to find out," said Hermione. She stood and stretched. "Well, I'm off to bed. 'Night boys!" They both mumbled a good night as she disappeared up the stairs to the girls dorm.
"Harry?" Ron said after a moment.
"Mm?"
"You don't think Hermione's a little-" he struggled for the right word, "- obsessed, do you?" Harry looked at Ron.
He was completely serious when he said, "I think saying she's obsessed is putting it lightly."
~
Hermione, Ron, and Harry were among the first to arrive at breakfast the next morning. Harry and Ron were eager to see what Hermione had done this time. Snape arrived a few minutes after the trio, looking sullen and irate. Definitely not a force to be reckoned with. Hermione smiled suddenly as she watched Snape out of the corner of her eye. Harry and Ron gave each other worried looks.
"Hermione," Ron said, lowering his voice, "I don't see anything different about him."
"We won't notice anything different until he opens his mouth." Another look passed between Harry and Ron.
"What happens when he opens his mouth?" Harry asked.
"You'll just have to wait and see."
Snape was one of the first to rise and leave the Great Hall after breakfast. The trio was right behind him.
"We have to get him to open his mouth," Hermione said, sounding a little flustered.
"How are we going to do that?" asked Ron.
"One of us will have to talk to him."
"Not me!" shouted Ron.
"No way!" said Harry at the same time. Hermione rolled her eyes at them.
"Fine! I'll do it." She waited until Snape was standing in the middle of the Entrance Hall before calling to him.
"Professor Snape! I have a question, sir!" Snape stopped and turned to watch as Hermione walked quickly to him. Snape (finally) opened his mouth to speak when the strangest thing happened. Snape was suddenly bathed in a pool of bright, white light. He closed his mouth quickly and looked up. There was no light. Hermione had to bite the inside of her cheek to keep from laughing at Snape's reaction. He was still staring at the ceiling, like he was trying to discover where the light was now hiding. He looked back at Hermione with narrowed eyes. He opened his mouth again and the light reappeared. This time, Snape kept his mouth open and looked up at the light. Hermione looked up, too. So did the entire Entrance Hall. Everyone had stopped walking and were now staring at Hermione, Snape, and the mysterious heavenly-looking light. You couldn't tell where the light was coming from, only that it started out narrow at the top of Snape's head and formed a big circle around his feet. Snape closed his mouth again and stared at the wall across the room from him, a look of great concentration on his face. It was obvious that he'd completely forgotten about Hermione.
"Err...I'll just be going then, shall I?" Hermione said while slowly backing away. Everyone else had resumed walking to their classes, throwing glances over their shoulders at Snape. Hermione, Harry, and Ron walked past Snape and up the grand staircase. At the top, the trio turned and looked at Snape. He was still standing in the middle of the Entrance Hall, looking up at the ceiling. He began opening and closing his mouth rapidly, making the light appear and then disappear the next moment. Hermione thought he looked like a gaping fish, opening and closing his mouth like that. The trio turned and ran quickly before they died laughing at Snape while he was thirty feet away. They couldn't contain the giggles, however, when they reached Flitwick's room.
"Did you see what he was doing?" said Ron, imitating Snape by opening and closing his mouth rapidly. It made him look like a fish out of water. Harry and Hermione doubled over with another wave of laughter.
"Wait tell you see him after lunch."
"What are you doing to him at lunch?" Harry asked, wiping at his eyes.
"Let's just say that it goes quite nicely with the heavenly light." Hermione smiled evilly as she pulled out her Charms book.
~
When it was twenty minutes until lunch started, Hermione hurriedly told Harry and Ron her plan before faking a bad headache and getting out of McGonagall's class. She ran to her room to get the potion from her trunk. Once the vial was tucked carefully into her robes, she ran out of the room and down to the kitchens. She managed to get the potion in Snape's drink and run to the Great Hall just as the food appeared. Hermione chanced a glance at Snape. He was staring right at her, his mouth in a grim line and his eyes accusatory. Hermione averted her eyes and walked quickly to the Gryffindor table.
"Well?" Ron asked around a mouth full of ham. Hermione smiled.
"I got it into his drink."
"When will we know?" asked Harry.
"Pretty quick. I made the potion stronger than what it really should be, but I don't think it will change the way it works." Hermione shrugged as she picked up a sandwich. They tried to make sure Snape didn't catch them watching him, but he didn't make it easy. He looked straight at them pretty much the entire time. That is, until Dumbledore leaned around McGonagall to say something to him. The scowl on Snape's face deepened before he opened his mouth to respond. The light not only covered Snape entirely, but also half of Flitwick and McGonagall, who were on either side of him. Snape's eyes flicked up at the light, but he otherwise tried to pretend it wasn't there. His colleagues, however, failed horribly at ignoring it. Flitwick snorted into his tea, McGonagall picked up her napkin to hide her grin, and Dumbledore put his chin in his plam and his fingers over his lips. Snape closed his mouth to glare at them for a moment before opening it again to speak. There were a couple of other snorts and a slight giggle when the light reappeared. This time, Snape ignored them.
"Well, Headmaster-" Snape began, but stopped immediately. Did he just sing? The entire Great Hall had hushed and were now staring at Snape, everyone's mouth hanging open slightly. Snape looked at his fellow professors. They were all shaking with suppressed laughter. Snape opened his mouth and tried again.
"Well-" he said, but again stopped. That's when everyone erupted into laughter around him. Snape threw his napkin down and stormed out of the Great Hall, shooting daggers at everyone in his path, but this time the glare had no effect. They were laughing too hard to pay any attention to the glare.
"We knew it was going to make him sing everything, Hermione," Ron said, taking deep breaths to calm down, "but you didn't tell us it would make him sound like that!"
"I didn't know it would make his voice high pitched!" Hermione heaved. "I bet that was the side effect of making it stronger..." Harry was still laughing. Actually, he was practically rolling on the floor.
"Did you hear him?" he asked, holding his sides. "He sounded like a little girl!" All three of them grew quiet, picturing Snape as a little girl with greasy, black pigtails. Then they all doubled over simultaneously, tears running down their faces. In fact, everyone in the Great Hall was laughing hysterically. Even the professors were having trouble keeping the tears from flowing.
"You know," Ron said, having a little trouble breathing, "for once I'm actually looking forward to Advanced Potions."
~
"You have the entire class time to complete the assignment," Snape said before waving his wand at the board in the corner. "Begin." His voice was still extremely high pitched and probably would be for at least two days, considering how strong Hermione had made the potion. She bit down harder on the inside of her cheek as she added the bat wing to her cauldron. Snape had walked in the dungeon classroom, scowling harder than usual, and warned them that if he heard so much as a little squeak of a sneeze, the person responsible would be spending the rest of the year in detention with him. A threat like that coming from Snape usually made the person(s) on the receiving end absolutely terrified, but when it came out of the mouth of someone who sounded like an Opera singer with a bright light over his head, it wasn't quite as frightening... In fact, as soon as he opened his mouth the entire class had done something to try and conceal their smirks or stifle the giggles that threatened to overtake them. Snape was not amused. Hermione almost burst when Snape stopped next to a Ravenclaw in the middle of the lesson to inform him that he was a fool. They never found out why he was a fool, though, because Snape stopped mid-sentence. The word 'fool' had carried on a note that would have made a well-practiced tenor proud. A second later, the entire room was filled with the sound of giggles. Hermione looked around. It seemed as if she was the only one who had been able to smother her laughter. Snape looked around as well, but it was hard to tell who had started the laughter. Instead of searching for the culprit who started it all, his eyes landed on Hermione. She stared right back, unflinchingly.
"Detention, Miss Granger," Snape sang. Hermione looked affronted.
"What for, Professor? I didn't do anything!" Snape's eyes glinted dangerously at her before he strode the length of the room in five steps to stand directly in front of her. Hermione's nose came to his chest, so she had to lean back a little to look at him. Snape, however, bent over slightly to bring them face to face.
"Are you questioning me, Miss Granger?" This usually would've been very intimidating, but the way his voice rose an octave with every word made his normally dangerous tone sound downright silly. It took all of 'Mione's willpower to make her face fairly expressionless. Snape, however, didn't miss the fleeting look of amusement that danced in her eyes before being replaced with a look of loathing.
"I shall repeat myself then. I said you have detention, with me, tonight. Be here at eight sharp or lose all your house points." The humor was completely gone from Hermione's face now. In fact, the look of loathing deepened before responding.
"Yes, sir!" she spat. Snape smirked at her a little before standing and facing the rest of the class. They were still trying to hide their laughter behind their hands. The smirk turned into a frown.
"Cork your vials and set them on my desk before you leave." Snape sat in his chair and steepled his fingers before him. His gaze remained on Hermione the rest of the time. She was absolutely seething. This pleased Snape to no end. He had, in fact, suspected Granger for quite a while now. She was the only one with enough brains to pull off the stunts. The other usual trouble makers had crossed his mind as well. Potter, Weasley, and all that, but Granger stuck out. Some of the pieces still didn't fit, but that would take time. Granger would be hard to break, but if a Snape wanted to know something, nothing was going to stand in their way. Least of all a 17- year-old witch. 'She's a brilliant 17-year-old witch,' he reminded himself. Snape frowned as he watched Hermione put the cork on her potion and bring it up to his desk. Her eyes were on him the entire time. Her face was blank, but her eyes were daring him, in a way. It was definitely a challenge. The frown deepened as he watched her grab her bag and head out the door. A Snape never backed down from a challenge...The frown disappeared as Snape stacked the parchment on his desk. He was thinking about the detention that would take place in a few hours. Then, he smiled. 'It should prove to be an interesting detention,' he thought. 'Far more interesting than they usually are...'
~
Snape could feel a pounding starting to form behind his eyes when he heard a knock at the classroom door. He checked the time. 'Must be Granger,' he thought, feeling slightly better at the thought of the approaching battle of wits. Then a thought hit him...What if she just remained passive? What if she just pretended she didn't know anything about it and sent him one of those 'you're off your rocker' looks? What if she really didn't know anything about who was behind the pranks? The knock sounded again, louder this time. Severus reminded himself that this was no time to second-guess his decisions before telling Hermione to enter (his voice was still at a very high octave and the light had yet to disappear). She came in, looking around nervously. Severus groaned inwardly. It seemed she was going to play the innocent.
"I'm here for my detention, Professor." Snape gestured to the chair in front of his desk. Hermione sat and watched him expectantly. Snape, however, said nothing. He only stared at her. They sat like this for several minutes before Hermione broke the silence.
"Professor? My punishment?" He raised his eyebrows at her.
"Do you know why you're here, Miss Granger?"
"Because you told me to be, sir."
"Cut the sarcasm. You're here because you know," he put an extra emphasis on 'know.' Hermione's eyes narrowed slightly.
"Know what?"
"You know who's behind this," he said, gesturing at the light above him.
"I'm afraid I don't know what you mean, sir." Snape stood and walked around his desk. He sat on the front of it, directly in her line of vision.
"Oh, I think you do," he whispered, but it came out sounding quite odd in the sing-songy voice. Hermione took no amusement in this whatsoever. She had only done a few pranks and Snape was too close to figuring out it was her already.
"What would give you that idea?"
"You watching me constantly, you always being there when these things seem to take place...There are just too many coincidences for everything to be chance."
"That's a rather weak theory," she said, a challenging tone in her voice. 'So,' Snape thought, 'maybe not so innocent after all...'
"Who says it's just a theory? Maybe I have proof." Hermione nearly snorted, but caught herself at the last moment. 'What the heck,' she thought. 'Time to get a little brave...' She narrowed her eyes at him and set her mouth in a grim, disbelieving line.
"I don't believe you," she said. Snape was rather caught off guard. He hadn't expected that answer.
"Even if I didn't have proof, I could get some."
"I'd like to see you try," Hermione muttered, but Snape heard her.
"You are dismissed, Miss Granger. Get out." Hermione didn't have to be told twice. She got up and practically ran from the room.
~
Back in her dormitory, Hermione threw herself onto her bed and stared up at the canopy. Her conversation with Snape was running through her mind. He knew, or at least suspected. But saying he suspected didn't mean anything. Not everything fit together. Hermione had been very careful, so it was unlikely Snape would find any proof. Even so, she was going to keep as much of an eye on him as he had on the trio when they were together. Hermione decided she was going to be extra careful with her revenge from now on. That meant that things were probably going to go a little slower, but there was no way she was going to stop. This was actually turning out to be a lot more fun than she first thought it would be...Plus, going head-to-head with Snape would be interesting. If she managed to make it to the end of the year without getting caught, then getting the chance to rub it in his face would be absolutely priceless!
***************
Thank you for reading! Now, how about pressing that cute little 'Go' button and leaving a review? I'd really love to know what you think about the chapter!
BTW, go check out Lissie89's stories. They're awesome!
Thanks to Lissie89, Draco-Malfoy-Severus-Luva, and DreamShadow1 for the wonderful reviews!
Big hug to my Beta, Lissie! Isn't she the best?
Disclaimer: I own nothing; J. K. Rowling owns everything. So what's new?
*************
Chapter 4 - 'Phase Three'
The trio left Snape alone for the next month. Hermione had been right; Snape was determined to figure out what was going on. It was obvious he suspected the trio more than everyone else who despised him. He watched all three of them constantly. He always had one eye on them during meals, in the classroom, and even in the corridors. Harry and Ron thought that Snape was also following them a little. Hermione, however, was too mad at the professor to notice the stalking. She knew exactly what their next move would be, but Snape's careful watching prevented her from taking action. Goodness knows she had tried, but Snape was always watching his back now. So when opportunity knocked one day, Hermione jumped at the chance to begin 'Phase Three.' Dinner had just ended, and the trio was heading to the common room when a voice rang out behind them.
"Professor Snape! Wait a moment please." Hermione whipped around to see McGonagall and Snape talking in the middle of the Entrance Hall. Snape's back was facing them. Hermione looked around quickly to see if anyone was watching them. There were students heading in every direction, talking loudly. It was perfect...Hermione pulled out her wand and, trying not to be obvious, murmured the spell quickly while her wand tip was pointed at Snape's back. She made sure the spell came in contact with him before turning and continuing up the stairs.
"Hermione, what was that?" Harry asked as they sat in corner chairs in the common room.
"The beginning of 'Phase Three.'" Harry and Ron, slightly wide-eyed, stared at Hermione. "How many 'phases' are there?" asked Ron.
"How ever many there needs to be."
"What spell did you use?" asked Harry.
"You'll just have to wait until breakfast to find out," said Hermione. She stood and stretched. "Well, I'm off to bed. 'Night boys!" They both mumbled a good night as she disappeared up the stairs to the girls dorm.
"Harry?" Ron said after a moment.
"Mm?"
"You don't think Hermione's a little-" he struggled for the right word, "- obsessed, do you?" Harry looked at Ron.
He was completely serious when he said, "I think saying she's obsessed is putting it lightly."
~
Hermione, Ron, and Harry were among the first to arrive at breakfast the next morning. Harry and Ron were eager to see what Hermione had done this time. Snape arrived a few minutes after the trio, looking sullen and irate. Definitely not a force to be reckoned with. Hermione smiled suddenly as she watched Snape out of the corner of her eye. Harry and Ron gave each other worried looks.
"Hermione," Ron said, lowering his voice, "I don't see anything different about him."
"We won't notice anything different until he opens his mouth." Another look passed between Harry and Ron.
"What happens when he opens his mouth?" Harry asked.
"You'll just have to wait and see."
Snape was one of the first to rise and leave the Great Hall after breakfast. The trio was right behind him.
"We have to get him to open his mouth," Hermione said, sounding a little flustered.
"How are we going to do that?" asked Ron.
"One of us will have to talk to him."
"Not me!" shouted Ron.
"No way!" said Harry at the same time. Hermione rolled her eyes at them.
"Fine! I'll do it." She waited until Snape was standing in the middle of the Entrance Hall before calling to him.
"Professor Snape! I have a question, sir!" Snape stopped and turned to watch as Hermione walked quickly to him. Snape (finally) opened his mouth to speak when the strangest thing happened. Snape was suddenly bathed in a pool of bright, white light. He closed his mouth quickly and looked up. There was no light. Hermione had to bite the inside of her cheek to keep from laughing at Snape's reaction. He was still staring at the ceiling, like he was trying to discover where the light was now hiding. He looked back at Hermione with narrowed eyes. He opened his mouth again and the light reappeared. This time, Snape kept his mouth open and looked up at the light. Hermione looked up, too. So did the entire Entrance Hall. Everyone had stopped walking and were now staring at Hermione, Snape, and the mysterious heavenly-looking light. You couldn't tell where the light was coming from, only that it started out narrow at the top of Snape's head and formed a big circle around his feet. Snape closed his mouth again and stared at the wall across the room from him, a look of great concentration on his face. It was obvious that he'd completely forgotten about Hermione.
"Err...I'll just be going then, shall I?" Hermione said while slowly backing away. Everyone else had resumed walking to their classes, throwing glances over their shoulders at Snape. Hermione, Harry, and Ron walked past Snape and up the grand staircase. At the top, the trio turned and looked at Snape. He was still standing in the middle of the Entrance Hall, looking up at the ceiling. He began opening and closing his mouth rapidly, making the light appear and then disappear the next moment. Hermione thought he looked like a gaping fish, opening and closing his mouth like that. The trio turned and ran quickly before they died laughing at Snape while he was thirty feet away. They couldn't contain the giggles, however, when they reached Flitwick's room.
"Did you see what he was doing?" said Ron, imitating Snape by opening and closing his mouth rapidly. It made him look like a fish out of water. Harry and Hermione doubled over with another wave of laughter.
"Wait tell you see him after lunch."
"What are you doing to him at lunch?" Harry asked, wiping at his eyes.
"Let's just say that it goes quite nicely with the heavenly light." Hermione smiled evilly as she pulled out her Charms book.
~
When it was twenty minutes until lunch started, Hermione hurriedly told Harry and Ron her plan before faking a bad headache and getting out of McGonagall's class. She ran to her room to get the potion from her trunk. Once the vial was tucked carefully into her robes, she ran out of the room and down to the kitchens. She managed to get the potion in Snape's drink and run to the Great Hall just as the food appeared. Hermione chanced a glance at Snape. He was staring right at her, his mouth in a grim line and his eyes accusatory. Hermione averted her eyes and walked quickly to the Gryffindor table.
"Well?" Ron asked around a mouth full of ham. Hermione smiled.
"I got it into his drink."
"When will we know?" asked Harry.
"Pretty quick. I made the potion stronger than what it really should be, but I don't think it will change the way it works." Hermione shrugged as she picked up a sandwich. They tried to make sure Snape didn't catch them watching him, but he didn't make it easy. He looked straight at them pretty much the entire time. That is, until Dumbledore leaned around McGonagall to say something to him. The scowl on Snape's face deepened before he opened his mouth to respond. The light not only covered Snape entirely, but also half of Flitwick and McGonagall, who were on either side of him. Snape's eyes flicked up at the light, but he otherwise tried to pretend it wasn't there. His colleagues, however, failed horribly at ignoring it. Flitwick snorted into his tea, McGonagall picked up her napkin to hide her grin, and Dumbledore put his chin in his plam and his fingers over his lips. Snape closed his mouth to glare at them for a moment before opening it again to speak. There were a couple of other snorts and a slight giggle when the light reappeared. This time, Snape ignored them.
"Well, Headmaster-" Snape began, but stopped immediately. Did he just sing? The entire Great Hall had hushed and were now staring at Snape, everyone's mouth hanging open slightly. Snape looked at his fellow professors. They were all shaking with suppressed laughter. Snape opened his mouth and tried again.
"Well-" he said, but again stopped. That's when everyone erupted into laughter around him. Snape threw his napkin down and stormed out of the Great Hall, shooting daggers at everyone in his path, but this time the glare had no effect. They were laughing too hard to pay any attention to the glare.
"We knew it was going to make him sing everything, Hermione," Ron said, taking deep breaths to calm down, "but you didn't tell us it would make him sound like that!"
"I didn't know it would make his voice high pitched!" Hermione heaved. "I bet that was the side effect of making it stronger..." Harry was still laughing. Actually, he was practically rolling on the floor.
"Did you hear him?" he asked, holding his sides. "He sounded like a little girl!" All three of them grew quiet, picturing Snape as a little girl with greasy, black pigtails. Then they all doubled over simultaneously, tears running down their faces. In fact, everyone in the Great Hall was laughing hysterically. Even the professors were having trouble keeping the tears from flowing.
"You know," Ron said, having a little trouble breathing, "for once I'm actually looking forward to Advanced Potions."
~
"You have the entire class time to complete the assignment," Snape said before waving his wand at the board in the corner. "Begin." His voice was still extremely high pitched and probably would be for at least two days, considering how strong Hermione had made the potion. She bit down harder on the inside of her cheek as she added the bat wing to her cauldron. Snape had walked in the dungeon classroom, scowling harder than usual, and warned them that if he heard so much as a little squeak of a sneeze, the person responsible would be spending the rest of the year in detention with him. A threat like that coming from Snape usually made the person(s) on the receiving end absolutely terrified, but when it came out of the mouth of someone who sounded like an Opera singer with a bright light over his head, it wasn't quite as frightening... In fact, as soon as he opened his mouth the entire class had done something to try and conceal their smirks or stifle the giggles that threatened to overtake them. Snape was not amused. Hermione almost burst when Snape stopped next to a Ravenclaw in the middle of the lesson to inform him that he was a fool. They never found out why he was a fool, though, because Snape stopped mid-sentence. The word 'fool' had carried on a note that would have made a well-practiced tenor proud. A second later, the entire room was filled with the sound of giggles. Hermione looked around. It seemed as if she was the only one who had been able to smother her laughter. Snape looked around as well, but it was hard to tell who had started the laughter. Instead of searching for the culprit who started it all, his eyes landed on Hermione. She stared right back, unflinchingly.
"Detention, Miss Granger," Snape sang. Hermione looked affronted.
"What for, Professor? I didn't do anything!" Snape's eyes glinted dangerously at her before he strode the length of the room in five steps to stand directly in front of her. Hermione's nose came to his chest, so she had to lean back a little to look at him. Snape, however, bent over slightly to bring them face to face.
"Are you questioning me, Miss Granger?" This usually would've been very intimidating, but the way his voice rose an octave with every word made his normally dangerous tone sound downright silly. It took all of 'Mione's willpower to make her face fairly expressionless. Snape, however, didn't miss the fleeting look of amusement that danced in her eyes before being replaced with a look of loathing.
"I shall repeat myself then. I said you have detention, with me, tonight. Be here at eight sharp or lose all your house points." The humor was completely gone from Hermione's face now. In fact, the look of loathing deepened before responding.
"Yes, sir!" she spat. Snape smirked at her a little before standing and facing the rest of the class. They were still trying to hide their laughter behind their hands. The smirk turned into a frown.
"Cork your vials and set them on my desk before you leave." Snape sat in his chair and steepled his fingers before him. His gaze remained on Hermione the rest of the time. She was absolutely seething. This pleased Snape to no end. He had, in fact, suspected Granger for quite a while now. She was the only one with enough brains to pull off the stunts. The other usual trouble makers had crossed his mind as well. Potter, Weasley, and all that, but Granger stuck out. Some of the pieces still didn't fit, but that would take time. Granger would be hard to break, but if a Snape wanted to know something, nothing was going to stand in their way. Least of all a 17- year-old witch. 'She's a brilliant 17-year-old witch,' he reminded himself. Snape frowned as he watched Hermione put the cork on her potion and bring it up to his desk. Her eyes were on him the entire time. Her face was blank, but her eyes were daring him, in a way. It was definitely a challenge. The frown deepened as he watched her grab her bag and head out the door. A Snape never backed down from a challenge...The frown disappeared as Snape stacked the parchment on his desk. He was thinking about the detention that would take place in a few hours. Then, he smiled. 'It should prove to be an interesting detention,' he thought. 'Far more interesting than they usually are...'
~
Snape could feel a pounding starting to form behind his eyes when he heard a knock at the classroom door. He checked the time. 'Must be Granger,' he thought, feeling slightly better at the thought of the approaching battle of wits. Then a thought hit him...What if she just remained passive? What if she just pretended she didn't know anything about it and sent him one of those 'you're off your rocker' looks? What if she really didn't know anything about who was behind the pranks? The knock sounded again, louder this time. Severus reminded himself that this was no time to second-guess his decisions before telling Hermione to enter (his voice was still at a very high octave and the light had yet to disappear). She came in, looking around nervously. Severus groaned inwardly. It seemed she was going to play the innocent.
"I'm here for my detention, Professor." Snape gestured to the chair in front of his desk. Hermione sat and watched him expectantly. Snape, however, said nothing. He only stared at her. They sat like this for several minutes before Hermione broke the silence.
"Professor? My punishment?" He raised his eyebrows at her.
"Do you know why you're here, Miss Granger?"
"Because you told me to be, sir."
"Cut the sarcasm. You're here because you know," he put an extra emphasis on 'know.' Hermione's eyes narrowed slightly.
"Know what?"
"You know who's behind this," he said, gesturing at the light above him.
"I'm afraid I don't know what you mean, sir." Snape stood and walked around his desk. He sat on the front of it, directly in her line of vision.
"Oh, I think you do," he whispered, but it came out sounding quite odd in the sing-songy voice. Hermione took no amusement in this whatsoever. She had only done a few pranks and Snape was too close to figuring out it was her already.
"What would give you that idea?"
"You watching me constantly, you always being there when these things seem to take place...There are just too many coincidences for everything to be chance."
"That's a rather weak theory," she said, a challenging tone in her voice. 'So,' Snape thought, 'maybe not so innocent after all...'
"Who says it's just a theory? Maybe I have proof." Hermione nearly snorted, but caught herself at the last moment. 'What the heck,' she thought. 'Time to get a little brave...' She narrowed her eyes at him and set her mouth in a grim, disbelieving line.
"I don't believe you," she said. Snape was rather caught off guard. He hadn't expected that answer.
"Even if I didn't have proof, I could get some."
"I'd like to see you try," Hermione muttered, but Snape heard her.
"You are dismissed, Miss Granger. Get out." Hermione didn't have to be told twice. She got up and practically ran from the room.
~
Back in her dormitory, Hermione threw herself onto her bed and stared up at the canopy. Her conversation with Snape was running through her mind. He knew, or at least suspected. But saying he suspected didn't mean anything. Not everything fit together. Hermione had been very careful, so it was unlikely Snape would find any proof. Even so, she was going to keep as much of an eye on him as he had on the trio when they were together. Hermione decided she was going to be extra careful with her revenge from now on. That meant that things were probably going to go a little slower, but there was no way she was going to stop. This was actually turning out to be a lot more fun than she first thought it would be...Plus, going head-to-head with Snape would be interesting. If she managed to make it to the end of the year without getting caught, then getting the chance to rub it in his face would be absolutely priceless!
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