A/N: Sorry, again, for letting you wait. After some serious death threats I'd decided I'd better get my ass moving and my hand typing ^^ This was supposed to be longer, but I am going on a one-week vacation and wanted to upload this before I go... But yes, well, I hope you all enjoyed book 5... There won't be any spoilers in this story, but I'm glad the book didn't kinda mess up mine. Although after reading it I did realise Remus is rather out of character here... But let's not think about it and just get on with it ^^;
The Perfectionist
By Mykerinos
Chapter Seventeen: Preparations are being made
Severus was in his potions lab, preparing a potion. It didn't serve a particular purpose, but brewing potions had always calmed him down. It could clear his mind from all thoughts by adding the right ingredients in the right doses at the right time. No matter how big your worries were, in this lab the potions required your complete attention and more. You needed to focus, not once should your mind slip off, or it could mean your death in certain cases.
It had always been a resort, a way out. Just like flying. Once you were in the air, there were so many things you should think of that you'd forget your problems in an instant. You had to navigate your broomstick, watch where you were going, and keep control of that amazing feeling that was threatening to take over your mind and that made you want to never land again.
Tomorrow was the contest. He had just had an almost casual conversation with Hermione Granger. Severus had all the reason to be nervous. But he'd calm down. Soon.
"I see you're hanging out the potions master again!" a voice suddenly called from the hallway. "No drug, I hope?"
Severus glanced up. Remus.
"I thought you'd be practicing," Remus said. "but you weren't at the field,"
"You've been searching me? Well, I am delighted," Severus' voice dropped with sarcasm.
Remus walked over to his colleague. Smiling, he put out his hand. "I know I've been nagging you lately, but... good luck with the contest, Severus."
Severus looked up from his cauldron, planning to return a rejecting remark, when he noticed the suddenly serious expression on Remus' face. The bastard was really wishing him luck. Sighing that he was giving in, he grabbed the other man's hand. "Shaking hands with a werewolf," he muttered under his breath.
When he pulled back his hand, there was something in it. "What the..." he started, but when he looked up, Remus was gone.
"I'll see you tomorrow!" it sounded from the hallway. "Sleep well!"
He looked at the small sculpture in his hand, turning it around. It looked vaguely familiar... At the bottom of it, letters were inscribed.
"Friendship comes when silence between two people is comfortable."
Severus frowned, then swirled around at the sound of a cauldron clashing on the floor. Green liquid spread all around. He forgot. Potions required your complete attention.
- -- - -- - -- -
"Hermione! Hermione, please wake up! It's time, you have to get up!"
Hermione groaned. This couldn't be true. Who was waking her so early in the morning? Why did she feel so tired?
"Please, Hermione, the contest!"
Hermione shot up, this sudden reaction startling Ginny also, who had already been shaking her for quite a while.
"What time is it?!" she asked bewildered.
"Nine O'clock," Ginny answered as Hermione jumped out of her bed, grasped some socks and robes, and stormed to the girls' bathroom, Ginny following. "I've been trying to wake you up for half an hour already!"
"Half an hour?" Hermione gasped. "Lavender was supposed to wake me at 8! The contest begins at 10; the contestants should arrive 30 minutes earlier..."
"Lavender tried! But every time she called you, you just growled and turned sides to continue sleeping,"
Hermione cursed herself inwardly for staying up so late the other night. She couldn't have slept more than 3 hours. As she stepped under the still cold shower, she rubbed her eyes. "I couldn't sleep last night," she told her friend, who didn't sound surprised. "So I went to the lake and sat there all night. With Snape."
It sounded so much like an unimportant detail that Ginny at first thought Hermione had been joking. When she didn't hear her laugh, however, her voice turned serious. "With Snape?!" she exclaimed, and Hermione imagined the priceless look on her face. "Do you realize what you have just said, Hermione??"
"Well, I do realise that it must sound silly, but it's probably nothing like you think it is,"
"There's only so many ways to interpret, 'sitting at the lake with Snape'. Just the mere fact that you can bear his presence scares me,"
Hermione laughed, despite her nerves. "I should be able to, after weeks of flying with him," she said, turning off the water and putting on her clothes.
"My hair, look at my hair!" she cried as she stared in terror at her reflection in the mirror. "How long have I got?!"
"Twenty minutes," Ginny said, handing her her wand.
With all the spells they knew they then tried to tame Hermione's hair, which at first wasn't successful at all.
"Wait – wait! I might know something!" Ginny squealed at one point as Hermione desperately threw her wand into the sink. Fortis Fugit!"
As a reaction, something steamed out of her wand through Hermione's hair with a loud noise like that of thunder. There was no change, or at least not in Hermione's hair; the girls' bathroom however, was full with smoke.
"Isn't that a spell for ironing clothes?" Hermione asked, frowning.
"Yes," the other coughed. "but I thought it might work..."
They tried more spells, and eventually Hermione's hair looked a little less bushy. They were so absorbed in their efforts to remember more spells, that they had forgotten about the time.
"Well, 'Mione, I suppose that's the best we can do in... -- Sweet Merlin! It's a quarter to ten already!"
TBC