===for disclaimer, see chapter and other stuff===
For Hermione, time couldn't pass any slower during her potions final. She had her eyes on her cauldron, watching the hot liquid boil and bubble. Professor Snape had instructed her to make a silencing potion. She knew how to make it, she had spent weeks memorizing the ingredients, but somehow, today, she had begun to feel like Neville, sitting scared and alone in the damp, dark classroom. Sure, she could do it, no problem. Just the thought of having to spend the rest of the summer with Snape, didn't make her feel any more happy. If she messed up on this, she'd never hear the end of it. Professor Snape sat, glaring behind his desk, his eyes staring down over his long, over grown nose. Hermione felt unsure of herself for the first time in her life and she noticed it when she started to dice her Lacewings, instead of chopping them, as she had remembered reading. She looked at her potion again. The soft, mesmerizing hum of the heating water almost annoyed her. She used both hands to gently pick up her lace wings and add them carefully to the cauldron.
Professor Snape huffed silently. He had never seen someone add ingredients so delicately. And though, as he did say, the more delicate the potion is handled, the stronger the effects. He tapped his skinny white fingers on the desktop, noting that when he did so, it seemed to make Hermione squirm with nervousness. He did it again and enjoyed the reaction that made her naturally rosy cheeks turn pale. He watched her grab her vile of Puffskein tongue and nearly drop it as she struggled with taking off the topper. He watched her carefully empty the contents out on the table and pick the biggest piece and sliced it in half. She took a vile of dragon's blood and added two drops of it to her tongue, using the knife she was cutting with to stir the two items together until it became a paste. She studied her potion again and watched it change form a light blue color to a darker blue before adding her mixture. Professor Snape raised an eyebrow as the color turned yellow. Hermione gasped. Yellow was bad. She shot a quick glance up at her professor, who had an amused expression on his face, along with a growing eye twitch. It was a look that Hermione never wanted to see in her life. She had messed up royally. Instead of green, it had turned a disgusting yellow color and the liquid popped with sickening sounds as it began to turn thick.
Her mind raced as she went over everything her books had told her to do in her head. She boiled the water, yes, she added the Lacewings at the appropriate time...yes, the Puffskein tongue was mixed with the dragon's blood until it became a paste, yes, adding it and stirring it soon after, yes. She quickly looked at the ingredients left for her potion; Skin of Toad and Essence of Wolf's Cry...She picked the both of them up and weighed them in her hands, totally lost for what to do. She couldn't just go up to her professor and admit to messing up. No, that would be the day. She was going to try and fix it. She was going to stand her ground until one of them snapped. She uncapped the Essence of Wolf's Cry and added it to the potion and began to stir. It was hard to stir, as the potion seemed to become as thick as mud, so she quit stirring and went onto cutting her Skin of Toad. Just as she cut a piece, an icy voice filled the room.
"Time is up, Granger."
Hermione's head shot up as she paused in cutting another slice of her stretchy toad skin.
"Oh, please professor. Five more minutes?"
"Five more minutes?" Snape raised an eyebrow. "Miss Granger, in five minutes, are you aware that it will have been fifty minutes in which you have started your final?"
"Yes sir, but--"
"And are you aware that this is a forty-five minute potion?"
Hermione gulped in a breath of much needed air. She was beginning to feel stuffy and light headed. "Yes, sir."
"Then hopefully your know-it-all brain can figure out that a forty-five minute potion does not need fifty minutes to brew."
"But professor--"
"I've told you your time is up. Bottle your potion and bring it up to me."
"It's wrong." She broke. Hermione had squealed on herself. She closed her eyes and blinked for a long second. Professor Snape heard her, but he wasn't satisfied at how quietly she had confessed to messing up. He tilted his head and looked at her, showing no pity.
"Pardon me? I don't believe I heard you."
"It's wrong." Hermione spoke a bit louder. Tears started forming in her eyes, casting them with waves which she blinked rapidly to keep back.
"I still don't believe I heard you." Professor cupped his ear, holding back a smile that was forming on his face.
"I said it's wrong! I messed up!" Hermione was now screaming. Professor Snape smirked. He had heard what he wanted to hear, loud and clear. It was his time for victory.
"Indeed." He replied, his voice becoming silky, buried underneath a tone of relief. Hermione glared back at him. Professor Snape stood and glided over to the mixture that smelt now of burning hair and unnatural body parts. He peered into the potion and wrinkled his nose.
"Miss Granger. Did you not clean the cauldron before you used it?" Professor Snape asked accusingly. Hermione shot a look to him.
"That wasn't part of your instruction."
"I expected you to know it."
"Everyone's expected to wash out their cauldron after their final, I supposed this cauldron had been cleaned already."
"I guess they didn't." Professor Snape gave a mock sympathy sigh and pointed, with a long, bony finger, to her mixture. "Time is up, Miss Granger. Give your potion to me and clean your mess."
"Since it wasn't my mistake, professor..c-could I try again?" Hermione asked stubbornly. She might have squealed on herself, but she wasn't about to give up so easily.
"Granger, you cannot weasel your way into another try."
"I just want one more--"
"Maybe you don't get it. If I give you another try, that means I have to give the whole student body another try. And unless you wish to grade each and everyone, I'm going to have to say bottle up your potion, clean this mess, and get out of my classroom."
"But--"
"Five points from Gryffindor." Professor Snape steamed a look at the student. Tears formed in her eyes, one trickled down her cheek. She held in her breath to keep silent and bottled a vile of her mystery liquid. She sniffed as she threw everything into her bad and stood, knocking over her chair as she waived her wand over the cauldron and watched it become clean before she turned and ran out of the potions classroom, madly wiping her eyes with the back of her hands.
Meanwhile, Professor Snape grinned in evil delight as he glided over to his grade book and wrote a huge 'D' next to her name, bringing a gloomy and doomed look to the letters of her intelligent label. This day was ending well. Very well indeed.