Before posting this I posted a note asking for a BETA; I wasn't very confident to go on without revision, for more than one person told me I should get one. Well, I must say you are great, offering to waste your time upon other people's work (in my case, paranoia would fit more than work). So far, it has been revised by Endilwen. Thanks, thanks and thanks. You'll be probably be tired of me toading to you (does that make any sense? I looked it up in the dictionary).
Thanks to CapitainCrash. There again! Thank you so much. Sometimes it feels really good to read a review... surely you know the feeling.
Also dragonwing, You are following the story! Thank you so much for reviewing also. Lemon Drops for you, lots of them!!!
Thanks also to Rusty, I think you were right... no Lemon Drops, but thank you anyway.
Queen Bonnie: I already told you about your review...
Midgetbeans: thanks for aswering to my request, and so quickly.
Trancos: how about the exams??? I hope you like this one also...
Orangutangirl: I was very happy also to see you had read this stuff... and thanks for offering, I really appreciated it.
I know I sound too much like having taken LSD, with all the exclamation marks. Also sorry for the punishment not being physical... I am not too keen on gore!
* * *
He walked in furiously and didn't smile back to Dumbledore.
"Severus, I wanted to speak to you."
"And? What's this thing that cannot wait?"
"I heard about Miss Granger, that... episode"
"I was about to punish her when you called for me" he said, frustrated. Sometimes he couldn't understand Dumbledore, although he respected him. From his position, Dumbledore moved them like in a chess game; and like pawns, they didn't know what they were doing, controlling just their next step but not the whole move, trusting the Headmaster to be the powerful wizard they knew he was, and praying he was not just a senile old goat.
"So I called you in time"
"In time for what? Dumbledore... I will not allow that girl go unpunished. She and her friends have already gotten away with too many things." He said accusingly. "I think you are too soft, Headmaster"
"Hmm" he said, not nodding but not denying. "That is not what I wanted, anyway. But please, take a seat" He reluctantly did so. "Listen, Severus, we all know, thanks to you, that Voldemort wants to clean wizarding blood, or that's how he calls massive muggle homicide. He has already started killing muggle borns" He made a short pause "And then, Miss Granger is not only muggle born, but also one of the two closest friends Harry Potter has, and the easiest one to be attacked. Try to imagine the kind of pressure she's living under".
"Dumbledore" he tried to interrupt. "That is not reason enough not to behave..."
He didn't seem to hear him "Believe me, I don't want to excuse her, although I can understand what must be running through her mind." Erasing his permanent parental smile, the powerful wizard appeared. "But the girl is in real danger. Chistmas vacations are getting closer and we have detected Death Eaters not very far from her parents."
That came as a surprise for Snape. He felt strangely sympathetic; luckily, the decision wasn't his. Probably it had been taken by Dumbledore hours ago. Well, at least she would have to clean while he was there.
"So?" he finally asked.
"So, I would like your punishment to be useful"
Surrendering to the unavoidable, Snape asked with something not too far from anger but not too far from amusement:
"What do you suggest?"
"I would like you to give her private classes of Defense Against The Dark Arts"
"What?"
"Come on, Severus, why not? That will be necessary for her"
"But Headmaster! We are speaking about Granger, extra-classes will be a blessing for her!"
"Not with the NEWTs so near and, well, Severus, I am sure you can make it sound as a very hard punishment, eh?" Yeah, he thought. I could make even an ice-cream sound like a very hard punishment.
And moreso if he was going to be the teacher. Hermione wouldn't be enraptured to know she was to spend more of her time with the Potions Master. Which brought another question to his lips.
"Why me?"
"You are the punishing one, and I know no better DADA's Master than yourself"
He chucked.
"Snape, we both know I need you in your current occupation and we should give a chance to other candidates. But you know as well as I do that you are one of the most bright wizards Hogwarts has ever provided, and you'd make a great Master".
Boosting my ego won't work, Dumbledore. But it was working.
"Now, Miss Granger is brilliant also. She's quite special, and we must save her, Severus, we must" his eyes were wet or so it seemed. "Clever as Voldemort is, I am not quite sure he would kill her immediately. Even if muggle born, she's too good to be despised."
"OK, listen. I agree, I'll teach her. But Dumbledore, about that Occlumency classes with Potter... well, we stopped them and we won't be continuing."
"We have already spoken about that... but well, you won't have any time left, so I'll find a substitute. I might be doing it myself. But he's just a child, don't take whatever he did on your last session too seriously."
"He did nothing"
"Good. Anyway, Harry is not James"
"I know that"
"Of course... it is just that even I get a little bit confused sometimes..."
Snape was burning.
"Anything else?" he had sounded rude, but he didn't care.
"No, no, go back to your tasks... Remember to keep an eye on Herm... Miss Granger" Dumbledore smiled like a child caught in fault or more exactly, like a grandpa caught giving chocolate to his favourite grandchild. Not that Severus Snape knew that expression from personal experience, of course.
Quickly he went back to his office.
* * *
"Detention, twice per week!" she moaned.
"Fiuuu" whistled Ginny.
"You will prepare a good supply of... of everything for Madame Pomfrey!"
Her quill was rushing over the paper. How would she do to keep on doing her homework? She had to study for the NEWTs!
But she didn't feel as bad as her groanings suggested. Really, she had enjoyed her last detentions. Working with Snape was great. She just wished he would let her do some more research, more experiments. But she suspected that wouldn't happen. She went on with Charms; she finished the 10 inches of scroll Flitwick had asked them to do and went to her room.
* * *
"What's up with her?" Ginny asked her brother
"I don't know, Ginny. She's acting weird!"
"She's probably under too much pressure. You know, the NEWTs, that Voldemort is stronger now..." Harry said, meditative. He was living the same, but he did not shout to Snape. And Hermione was the last one he would have imagined doing so.
"Poor Hermione. I think she still hasn't gotten over breaking up with Viktor"
"That stupid. I told her he just wanted to have fun!"
"Ron, it was her who broke it off"
"Oh" the boy went red.
"We should go to bed... I wouldn't like her to have to throw us away from the Common Room tonight"
And they went, Harry sending a pitiful glance to the hearth.
* * *
"Take out your wand."
"My wand?"
"Miss Granger, I've always known that your skills are limited but I never suspected you were deaf."
She took out her wand, feeling furious but keeping her mouth closed.
"Following my instructions to do some potion is no challenge except for Longbottom." They both knew that was not true. " We will be practicing some defensive spells. Now, I'll attack you, feel free to defend yourself as well as you can. Don't be scared to hurt me"
I won't. She stood defiantly"Petrificus To...."
"Expeliarmus!"
Snape managed to keep his wand, but he couldn't complete the spell. She's as brilliant as in potions.
"Impedimenta!" said Hermione, at the same time he was saying "Jelly Legs!"
"Very well, Miss Granger" he said coldly "Let's see now what you are capable of doing in front of a Dementor" he knew that Dementors were one of her biggest fears, because the last time they had seen a boggart, in Grimmauld Place during summer holidays, that's what it had become.
Hermione shuddered. She had practised her Patronus but she hadn't had the chance to put it into real use. Snape opened his office door, and a boggart came out.
Suddenly, it became the corpse of her mother.
"Ri... Riddikulus!"
It was a mix between her mother and her father, now. Shaking, she said:
"Riddikulus!"
It was Harry, now.
"Riddikulus!"
Then, Ron, and Dumbledore, and Ginny, and Viktor. This was similar to what had happened to Molly Weasley. But she couldn't stop it.
"Riddikulus!" she said, with more decision now.
It was McGonagall.
Snape took his wand out. This was too much for the girl, he thought.
His heart missed a beat when he saw himself lying dead on the floor. Quickly, he made the boggart become something similar to a dog and then made it disappear.
Hermione stood there, absent, trembling and looking nowhere.
"Miss Granger, are you all right?"
She got quiet and nodded.
"I think that was enough for today. See you on Thursday."
She stood there some seconds more, and then she left, still a bit shocked.