Disclaimer: If I should die before I wake, I commend my soul into this ache… yay for Blues Traveler! I saw them live, they were really stupendous ^_^ Oh yeah, I don't own Harry Potter. So sue me! Erm.. I mean don't sue me. And I don't own Blues Traveler. But I do own their CDs ^_^

SLYTHERIN BOY

Chapter Twelve: Rant And Roar

Two months had passed quickly. Hermione could tell that Severus was becoming increasingly frustrated with his position as a youth. The teachers and students would have imagined he would have gotten more used to it as time passed, but he seemed to be getting more and more displeased with it.

"I can't take it anymore!" He said, throwing his satchel on the library table heavily. Madame Pince looked like she was about to shush him for being noisy in the library, but he glared at her, and in turn she simply huffed and turned away.

"You should find a way to bottle that glare and sell it. You'll make a million," Hermione said, glancing up from her Transfigurations essay. Severus gave her a cynical look, at which she simply grinned. She loved that he was so wry all the time. Once she'd gotten used to it, she couldn't imagine him being any other way.

Their friendship had grown to the point that she was spending nearly all of her time with him. Not to mention that she was so lovesick over him she talked about him whenever she wasn't with him.

"What can't you take, then?" She asked.

"Oh, right," he said, reminded of his previous angry outburst. "I can't take this! Being stuck in this stupid… child body. All of my colleagues are treating me like a student! It's appalling! At least as an adult they left me enough alone,"

"Well, if you weren't so frightening towards Neville all the time, he wouldn't be so nervous and blunder as much in your class," Hermione said vaguely. She had grown used to him complaining of his child-like status. It happened on a regular basis.

"I can't help that he's a complete idiot," Severus snapped. "He's practically a squib, he shouldn't even be in Hogwarts."

"Hey, no need to be harsh," Hermione said. She didn't think about the fact that at the beginning of her year she would have thought it folly to even suggest Snape be anything but harsh.

"It's his fault," Severus grumbled.

"You just like to point out people's mistakes." Hermione said, giving him a stern glare. He huffed slightly and looked away. "And I think that those sort of times are when you should remember that only he without faults may cast the first stone. You wouldn't like it if people badgered you about your mistakes."

His ears burned red. "No, I don't like it, and people do badger me about my mistakes. Not that I don't give them a reason to. It's a vicious circle," he smirked without humor.

"You're in a bad mood today," Hermione said.

"I've got another detention with that… that potions wench," he snarled the last word with absolute distaste.

"What for?" Hermione said.

"Some ridiculous accusation that I stole potions ingredients from her office. More like MY office! As if taking ingredients from my own stores is stealing! To top that off, I didn't even take any!" he ranted.

"That's absurd. Couldn't they use Veritaserum or something to find out?"

Severus shook his head. "I'm allergic to it." He said.

"Allergic?" Hermione said. She blinked at him blankly. "Whoever heard of someone being allergic to Veritaserum?"

He shrugged. "All I know is that if I drink it, I cough up blood and die (without treatment)."

"How awful!" Hermione said, her hand in front of her mouth.

"Well, that's life. There are certain alternatives, but they know I could fight pretty much every single alternative they give me." He shrugged.

"Well, I guess you'll just have to deal with it." Hermione said. He grimaced, and pulled out a potions book he was halfway through.

****

Hermione sat down at the Gryffindor table for dinner. Ron looked at her, before frowning at the table. She instantly launched into a discussion about how Severus was allergic to Veritaserum and which ingredients might have been the ones that he's allergic to. Suddenly, Ron slammed his fork onto the table.

"Shut-Up!" He snapped at her. She stared at him dumbly.

"What on Earth is the matter with you?" She said, scared at his anger.

"All you ever do is talk about HIM." Ron snapped. "I don't care what he's allergic to or why," he glared at her with narrowed eyes.

"You're just jealous because I'm friends with him," she said softly.

"Exactly!" Ron said. He threw his hands up. By now, the entire table was listening, while trying to hide the fact that they were (though not discreetly). Ron shook his head. "You just don't see it, do you?" Hermione blinked at him, her eyebrows furrowed together.

"See what? He's a really good friend once you get to know him,"

"That's not the point!" Ron rubbed the bridge of his nose. "I don't care what he's like! I don't care!" he shouted. He visibly tried to calm himself down. "I mean, Jesus, Hermione," he shook his head again. "Me and Harry never ever see you anymore! You're always with Snape! And when you're not, you might as well be with how you talk about him! I mean, Christ, if you're going to be friends with him that's all well and good. And if you're going to stay friends with us, well that's fantastic. But don't just pretend your friends with us. It's obvious you care more about him anyways!" Ron snapped.

Harry rubbed the back of his neck as Ron stood up and stormed away. Hermione rubbed tears away from her eyes. "Have I really been that bad, Harry?" she asked.

"Hate to say it, Mione," Harry shook his head. "You really have been ignoring us a lot. Ron's having much more trouble dealing with it. I understand though, Hermione. I mean, I know you're so much incredibly smarter than the two of us. You just never seemed bothered by it before. But now, you found someone who you can talk to about smart stuff, and not, like, dumb yourself down for us. I understand that you're excited about having Snape as a friend. It just… it still hurts, y'know?" Harry smiled at her sadly.

"I didn't mean to… Harry, you have to understand… I really… I care about you two… I didn't even realize… you'll always be my friends…" she said helplessly.

"Well," Harry said thoughtfully. "Maybe you should spend a little more time with us. Try and mend what you've done to Ron, I think he's had an aneurysm, really," He looked at her comfortingly. "I understand, really. Just… still," he stood up slowly.

"Let's go… y'know… see if Ron hasn't thrown himself off the Astronomy tower," Harry smirked. Hermione stood, sniffling softly, and followed Harry.

****

Severus sat in the library alone. He sat in a large, overstuffed green armchair that overlooked the grounds. He could see her from where he sat. On the Quidditch pitch, laughing at Ron and Harry's antics on their brooms. A familiar dazed, hazy, relaxed feeling encompass him. It wasn't enough, though, to keep his bitter feelings contained.

"Stupid Gryffindors," he grumbled. "Stupid Quidditch. Stupid Hermione,"

They had been meeting in the library after dinner every night for nearly a month and a half. It had come to be expected. The past two days, he hadn't seen her at all. She had given him apologetic notes during classes canceling anything she had agreed to do. He tried to convince himself that he didn't care.

"Liar," he said to himself. Of course he cared. The insufferable, arrogant know-it-all had quickly become his closest friend. It suddenly hadn't seemed to matter that she was a Gryffindor, a mudblood, and some twenty years younger than him. Until the accident, that is. All that mattered was that she had respected him, treated him kindly even when he hadn't been so kind to her, and stood by him with a Slytherin-like loyalty.

She was his one and only friend in such a lonely time in his life. It seemed in the past few years he had completely isolated himself from anyone he had ever considered even a little bit of a friend. They had all become suspicious after Dizzy. Dizzy had been the final straw.

He knew when he'd allowed himself to care about Hermione that all good things must come to an end. He'd known that when he'd been friends with Dizzy and Lyra, too. He knew that, all in all, no one would ever stand by him. He'd come into the world alone, grown up alone, and a brief period he'd been happy. When he'd run away from his life back to Hogwarts yet again, he'd made himself more alone than ever. Hermione's adopting him as her best friend had seemed too good to be true.

"It was," he snarled to himself, hugging his knees to his chest. Again, again, alone.

He watched as Hermione, cheeks rosy from the wind, laughed and teased her friends as they came inside from the Gryffindor Quidditch practice. He brushed his ever-growing raven colored hair out from in front of his face. The library was dark and empty. He saw Madame Pince gazing at him curiously from her desk. He couldn't take it anymore, the staring. He stood up, grabbed his bag, and stormed out. She hadn't even bothered to cancel this time. She'd just left him hopeful and let him down.

"Doesn't everyone, though?" He murmured to himself as he walked towards the guest quarters Albus had let him move into. He still didn't figure how being in guest quarters was any less conspicuous to Voldemort than staying in his own rooms, but he was too tired to argue about it.

As he walked towards his rooms, hands thrust into his pockets, a gloomy look on his face, he halted, seeing three pairs of sneakers pause in front of him. He looked up into the faces of Ron, Harry, and Hermione, windblown as they were, with the breathless air of people who'd just come in from the cold.

"Oh, hey, Snape." Ron said, a sudden suspicious look on his face. Severus felt a strange but somehow familiar apprehension creeping up into his chest as he looked at the three friends. "I'd prefer you gave me the simple dignity of addressing me properly," Severus said, a bitter tone to his voice.

"Right, Severus, then," Ron said, adding a lisp to his voice as he pronounced Severus's name. "What kind of a name is that, anyways?" Ron said. "It sounds gay,"

Severus felt his ears burning. "Well, you'll have to consult my parents on that matter. I don't recall choosing it, Ronald," he said, just as offensively.

"Stop it, Ron," Harry said suddenly.

"I don't need your defense, Potter," Severus snarled.

Harry gave him an irritated look. "You know, it might be easier for us to treat you with respect if you treated us with a little." He said calmly. Harry was learning to keep his temper.

Severus swallowed. "I apologize," he said. "I didn't mean to lower myself to Weasley's level." He blinked, hard, struggling to keep his eyes focused. He was starting to feel tired.

Ron glared. Severus turned to him. "You can glare all you want, you ungrateful little bastard," he snarled. "Don't you always get what you want in the end anyways?! I'll just toss myself off the North tower and make your life perfect!"

Ron looked suddenly surprised. He gave Severus a suspicious look. "Whatever floats your boat, Snape," he growled.

"You think I wouldn't do it?!" Severus exclaimed shrilly. He was irritatingly aware of a bit of the sorter hair on the back of his head pricking him in the neck. "What in the hell makes you think I've got a pleasant enough life to want to stay here?"

Ron reddened. "You know, I really would have expected you to appreciate Hermione a bit more, with all she does for you!" He said.

Severus looked at him with a bewildered and frustrated look. "What?!" he shrieked. "What does this have to do with her?" He pointed roughly at Hermione.

"Well, you know, you seem so depressed all the time, and she really worries about that! You'd think you might try to at least show her you appreciate her friendship!" Ron snapped.

"Appreciate what? Appreciate her becoming my friend and making me think for…" Severus narrowed his eyes. "For just a while that I might actually be worth something, only to throw me to the dustbin the second you show a little discomfiture?" his voice was shaking now. "To think that I actually believed that anyone would want to be around such a miserable creature as myself as opposed to being around the jolly, fun-loving," Severus spat the words as though they were poison. "golden boys of Gryffindor? To think, it never crossed my mind that it might have all just been a great prank against me," Harry, Ron, and Hermione were staring at him in surprise. Hermione had a guilty, and upset look on her face. "A sort of… see who can make that greasy git Snape hate himself even more," He was suddenly feeling weak, his emotions running rampant on his face, the hurt, the betrayal, the anger. "Well I guess you won, because I don't think I could despise my lowly existence any more than I do now,"

He pushed away the impulse to cry with a vicious clenching of his hands, in which his fingernails sank painfully into the skin. Harry and Ron stared dumbly.

"Uh…" Ron said. His face was red in embarrassment. "Well… but…" he stuttered for the right words.

"Don't even bother," Severus shook his head, bending to pick his bag off the floor. "Just… don't," he frowned at them, his tired eyes speaking volumes. He scowled at how they stood barring the way. The walked straight at them, pushing Ron aside with his shoulder, and disappearing down the dark corridor.

****

Hermione ran up, grabbing Severus by the shoulder as he unlocked the door to his quarters. "Severus-" she said, her eyebrows furrowed. "I…"

He looked at her. "You know, I didn't think that you were like that. I thought you were too young, too honest, too good-hearted to do that. You could have at least told me that you were going back to the days of old when there was nothing could stop the famous Gryffie trio," he said. "You could have told me you didn't want to see me anymore. For Christ's sake, Hermione," he said, wrenching his shoulder out of her hand and walking into his quarters. He closed the door behind him, leaving her in the empty hallway. She rapped lightly on the dark wooded door.

"Severus…" she said. "I didn't mean to… I still want to be your friend… Severus…" she called. There was no answer. After awhile, she gave up and trudged back up to Gryffindor Tower.

****