Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.
It was 9:55 and Hermione, her mum, dad and luggage were all assembled in their small living room.
"So when is this Professor Sape, or whatever his name is supposed to be here Darling?" Hermione's father asked.
"It's Professor Snape, and he said 10:00" Hermione replied, looking at her watch.
"Is her coming by floo?" Her mum inquired.
"No mum, he's apperating; Much quicker and less messy. He'll be here any second now"
Just as she said that, Snape landed in front of her with a loud 'pop'. Straight away Hermione's mum started playing the gracious housewife.
"Hello, you must be Professor Snape. I am Lynn and this is my husband Harold. Hermione has told us so much about you."
"Please, call me Severus" he said shaking Harold's hand.
"Severus then, please, take a seat. Would you like a cup of coffee or tea?" Hermione's mum asked.
Hermione noted that Snape looked a bit overwhelmed by her parents, she supposed he hadn't been around many muggles before.
"Mum, I think we may be in a bit of a hurry" Hermione said, trying to free them from this predicament.
"Well then, I'll let you two go"
"We'll be apperating to Hogsmeade and then continuing on from there." Snape said, before casting a spell on her bags to shrink them down to the size of a walnut.
"Ok, sir"
"Well Miss Granger, are you ready?"
"Yes sir, just one minute". Hermione ran over to her father and gave him a hug.
"Stay safe, Hermione, I love you" her father whispered. Going over and hugging her mum tightly, she said goodbye to them both.
"If I can, I'll visit on the weekend ok." She said with tears in her eyes. Snape stood watching this family. He wished for just one moment that he could be loved like that. However, this thought left and quickly as it came and he decided he really needed to get back.
It was 11:00 in the morning and Hermione felt very out of place. Where she would usually be at home sleeping in or doing homework she was standing in a corridor at Hogwarts just after travelling for an hour with Professor Snape.
"Now Miss Granger, behind the painting of the young girl in white are your temporary rooms, I need you to meet with me at 7:00pm, now I must get back to my work." And with a swish of his cloak, he was gone.
Hermione stood in the corridor startled, at first she thought the overgrown bat might be in a good mood seeing there were no students around to bother him, but it seems that he was just his usual self. She wandered down the corridor.
She never came down here except for potions class, mainly to avoid certain slytherins, so she was not sure where this painting was. She slowly ambled along, pulling her cloak tightly around herself to keep off the chilly air. She found the corridor depressing; greys upon depressing greys.
She presumed Salazar Slytherin must have been a disheartened character. She looked at each portrait as she walked past; most were of old Hogwarts staff or famous wizards who have long since passed on. Seeing the portrait she wanted in the distance, she strolled over.
A painting of a young girl greeted her. The girl would have been around twelve and looked delightful wearing a white dress, holding a large bunch of waxen flowers. It almost reminded Hermione of her young cousin, as this girl had brown curly hair, the same as hers. This painting seemed light and happy, such a stark contrast to all the other pictures in the Slytherin corridor.
" Hello," she said to the girl in the painting. "Are you the entrance to my rooms?" she asked. The girl smiled timidly.
"Yes, you must be Hermione, it has been so long since someone stayed here. What would you like your password to be?" After a moments thought Hermione decided,
"Pink lily" she said. The portrait swung back revealing her chambers.
Hermione was awestruck. The room was huge, in the centre stood a large four-poster bed with a beautiful white cover. The quilt itself was exquisite, pure white with rosebud designs timelessly embroidered into it. A rosewood bedside table stood beside it elegantly designed no doubt by wood elves.
The room also consisted of a matching set of draws, a wardrobe, bookcase and desk. Opening the wardrobe, she realised all her belongings were already in the room. A large window with white curtains was enchanted to look out over the lake, which at the moment was sparking as the sun reflected off the tiny ripples.
Opening the door beside her, she found her own bathroom that closely resembled the prefect's bathroom on the third floor. Deciding to go on a walk before lunch she headed out towards the grounds.
12:30 came and Hermione decided she better go in and get some lunch, walking into the great hall she realised how deserted it really was. She moved over to the head table and Dumbledore invited her to sit down.
"Good-afternoon Miss Granger," he said stroking his beard, which Hermione thought seemed to grow longer each year.
"Afternoon sir." She replied, "Umm… Professor, who else is staying in the castle over vacation? It seems so deserted."
"Well Miss Granger, it seems both Professor Snape and Professor Sprout are here currently, although Professor Sprout is only here until Wednesday as her mandrakes seemed to be crying out for her attention. The other teachers usually arrive one or two days before prior to school starting."
"Ok sir,"
"So I expect you find your rooms agreeable" Dumbledore asked, helping himself to the jug of pumpkin juice.
"Yes, they're lovely, thank-you"
"I'm glad you think so, as one cannot dream in a place where one's heart is not at rest"
Hermione was puzzled by this but began eating her meal none the less. It would be quite lonely here for three weeks she thought. At that moment, Professor Sprout walked through the door wearing startling green robes covered in dirt.
"Why hello Miss Granger, it's nice to see another face around here. How has you vacation been going?"
"Find Professor. And yours?" Hermione asked as Professor Sprout sat down, not noticing as dirt from her robes fell onto her empty plate.
"I stayed in Greece for two weeks but then had to come back to Hogwarts to check on my mandrakes. That is the good thing about wizard travel, much quicker than muggle airplanes".
"Yes indeed" Hermione agreed. She hated flying in planes, as she always got sick.
"Well we best get started on this lovely looking lunch," Sprout said, piling her plate with green salad.
Hermione looked around the great hall; it looked so different without all the unruly students. However, all the while she wondered why Snape was not having lunch with them. As if he had read her thoughts Professor Dumbledore said,
"It looks like Severus has forgotten lunch again"
"This is the third time this week", Sprout added, "Personally, I think he's trying to starve himself".
"I'll make sure the house elves bring him some food," Dumbledore stated.
Awhile later, Hermione returned to her chambers, grabbing her charms homework, the only subject she had not yet completed, and wandered outside. The weather by the lake was quite pleasant.
Sitting down, she took off her outer cloak and shoes, rolled up the ends of her light blue jeans and hung her feet in the water. Pulling her parchment and quills out of her bag she opened her book, 'Advanced Achievement in Charming'.
She continued from her already 9-inch essay on how to recognise mood-altering charms. Professor Flittwick had assigned this in the hopes that girls would stop performing cheering charms on themselves whenever they broke up with their boyfriends.
Before Hermione realised, it was quarter to six and getting dark. Quickly eating dinner at the Great Hall, she hurried to her rooms. She had ten minutes to go before her meeting with professor Snape so she changed into a long sleeved green top and her dark coloured jeans. She threw a plain black robe over the top and looked in the mirror.
"Lovely dear" it said, just before she ran out the door.
Hermione's watch showed 6:27pm as she stood outside the potion classroom. She hated going in there alone. Taking a deep breath, she knocked on the door.
"Come in" called Snape's voice. "Take a seat Miss Granger," he said, conjuring a chair on the other side of his desk. Hermione moved quickly, seating herself in the green chair. "The potion Dumbledore has asked us to create is the 'L'élixir de mort'"
"Elixir of Death" she whispered to no one but herself. Obviouly Snape heard this though as he said,
"Correct Miss Granger. ' L'élixir de mort' or 'The Elixir of Death' is a potion designed to kill someone who cannot be killed by any other means. Invented in the early 1600's, it was rarely used due to the time it takes to brew and because of the fact that most wizards can be killed by various, much simpler methods. This potion does not actually kill a wizard outright but leaves them without any means of protection. Dumbledore's plan being that once Voldermort has been administered the potion, Potter will be able to finish him off quickly."
"I see, and how hard will it be to formulate this potion?"
"The potion, Miss Granger, is a particularly difficult one. The script is written in both Latin and French, which we will have to translate, numerous pieces of the text are missing and many of these ingredients are no longer available. Even the ones available are quite uncommon and many now days are illegal because of their potent qualities. As you already know, just one ingredient missing from a potion can throw the whole thing out of balance. We will spend most of our time researching and even after that the potion will take many months to complete; I highly doubt we will finish by the end of the school year. Therefore, you shall have to spend most of your holidays here. This is a large commitment Miss Granger, and if you are unwilling to see it through I will ask you to leave now."
"I understand Professor. How often will we need to meet?"
"At first, while we are researching, every few days, after that it will be whenever we need to work on the potion, which I would say will be quite frequently"
Hermione sat there pondering, she couldn't say no, the order needed her, even if it meant working with Snape. "Well Miss Granger" he sneered "Have you made a decision or do I have to put up with you sitting at my desk all night."
"I'll make the potion Professor"
"Well then Granger, we will start. Come with me"
"Where are we going?" she asked. Snape did not answer but stood up from his desk and walked to a door at the back of the room leading to his private potions stores.
"A rose by any other name" he said and the door swung open. Hermione was startled with his reference to such a famous muggle writer. He turned to Hermione before entering. "I am giving you this password for the simple reason that if I cannot be here for some reason you may need to enter to continue the research. The conditions are that you do not enter under any other circumstances or give this password to anyone. Do I make myself clear?"
"Yes Professor"
They entered but instead of stopping here, they continued through the door at the end of the storeroom.
"These are my chambers"
She walked through the open door and was surprised with what she saw. She was stationed in his sitting room and it was not at all dark and dingy like she had imagined, but quite warm and cosy.
Two armchairs accompanied a large black couch placed in front of a wizard's fireplace. The only other furniture in the room was a small coffee table, but every wall was lined from top to bottom with books.
The right wall held a window enchanted to look like the sky outside and on the opposite wall and to the left were two doors. She presumed the one in front of her would lead to his bedroom but she had no idea where the door on the left would lead. As if he could hear her thoughts Snape said, "You can also enter this room through the door on your left. It joins to the painting of a silver dragon in the main corridor of the dungeons; the password is the same as before."
"All right" she said, not really paying attention. She was too busy wandering around the bookshelves looking at all the books. She had never seen so many potions books, but that was not all. He had books on almost every subject, muggle and magical.
"Miss Granger" Snape called.
She could just spend all her time here reading, the shelves held so many rare and unusual books. She ran her fingers along the spines of the ones along the bottom shelf. They were arranged exactly how she would arrange her own books.
"Miss Granger"
What she wouldn't give for a library like this.
"MISS GRANGER!" Hermione snapped out of her daydream. "If you have quite finished gawking at my bookshelves."
"Sorry Professor"
"We have research to do, take a seat"
Hermione sat at the end of the couch while Snape sat in an armchair, spreading the potion notes out on the coffee table.
"As you can see Miss Granger, our potions list comprises of many ingredients."
"Ginger roots, belladonna, aconite, hellebore, fluxweed, knotgrass, Jobberknoll feathers, powdered dragon horn, re'em blood, wartcap powder, alihotsy, fanged geranium venom, flitterboom leaves, lovage, nundu claw, sneeze wort, mandrake tears, crushed boomslang shells, knarl quills, dragon teeth. Snidget feathers" Hermione read out.
"I have never seen a potion with so many ingredients before sir"
"Yes, you can see why this potion hasn't been brewed in hundreds of years. Now Miss Granger, what problems will we come across gathering these ingredients." Snape asked. She knew he was testing her and after taking a deep breath, she started pointing out the problems.
"Well Professor, hellebore is extremely poisonous and must be collected at the full moon therefore making it hard to collect, nundu claw would be almost impossible to get hold of without attracting attention as it takes over a hundred wizards to subdue one even temporarily so we would need to find a substitute ingredient if possible. In the last 50 years snidget birds have become endangered, sale of any part is illegal and there would be no way to obtain their feathers." Snape raised an eyebrow.
"Although they are probably available on the black market", Hermione added slowly. Snape smirked,
"Go on Miss Granger".
" Fanged geranium venom can only be gathered in February, so that will leave us with a long wait, and as far as I know Re'em's have recently become extinct leaving us with the problem of finding another replacement ingredient as re'em blood must be fresh in order for it to take effect".
"Well done Miss Granger, although you forgot that wartcap powder is rarely sold these days and we may have to collect it ourselves". 'Well at least he sort of congratulated me' thought Hermione.
"We will start by trying to find an ingredient to replace the re'em blood and the Nundu claw as without them the potion will have no effect. We can start by looking through my library; the books up in the top shelves are older, most I inherited from my mother and have not even opened. You may do what you like with the books although I would ask you to return them to their proper place."
Hermione stood up and walked over to the first shelf of books. She was looking for something telling her the properties of re'em blood. Knowing what she wanted would not be among the newer books she stood on a chair trying to read the titles placed on the top shelf, a gold book caught her eye 'Magical Creatures of the East 1891'
"Accio Magical Creatures" she said, almost falling off the chair as it came flying down. Sitting on the couch again she flipped to the section on re'em's and started reading.
Native to the wilds of North America and the Far East, this extremely rare golden-furred giant ox's blood gives the drinker immense strength. However, since demands far exceed supply, re'em blood is found on the open market only rarely.
Hermione yawned as she turned the page of her fourth book. Snape looked up and realizing the time, he shut his book. "Miss Granger, it's already 10:30, why didn't you tell me it was getting so late?"
"I didn't realize Professor," she said. She had been so engrossed in studying she had lost track of the time.
"Well, you better get back to your dorm"
"Yes sir" she said, picking up the books to put them back on the shelf.
"Just leave the books, we'll need them again next time. We will meet again tomorrow, 7pm".
"Ok sir, goodnight", she said as she led herself out.
"Goodnight Miss Granger"
Sorry if my French is not correct, I only know the very basics. Also, sorry about the long wait, but I have been on holidys and unable to get to a computer.