Disclaimer: J.K. Rowling wrote Harry Potter, not me. I'm just messing around with her wonderful characters.
When Hermione awoke she was thinking of Lavender. Not Lavender, the girl whom she had spent the last seven years at school with, but Lavender the fragrant purple plant. As her consciousness gradually returned all her mental faculties to her she realised that the brilliant image in her mind was being caused by the odour emanating from her fingers. Unsteadily she forced her neck to tilt down so that she could observe her hand. It was then that she realised that rather than the usual five digits, her hand now appeared to be sporting ten. Still too close to sleep to be anything more than mildly disturbed at this, she bent her head further to examine her new fingers more closely.
Her new fingers were paler, more milky in complexion than her old ones. Although thicker, they seemed slender, and were obviously longer, evidenced by the joints that stuck out further than hers. They were surprisingly soft, almost delicate. As she stared at them she became aware that her new thumb had a sparse sprinkling of short dark black hair that curled ever so slightly. She frowned. Whilst an additional five fingers might have their uses, a hairy thumb was positively not desirable.
Just as the very girly part of her mind was about to have a full-on freak-out fit over that, her logical brain, that was so often praised by those around her, finally rubbed the sleep-dust out of its eyes and decided to apply itself.
Processing the ten-fingers one hand information in less than a nano-second, it firmly booted its girly counterpart up the arse and pointed out that it was unlikely that Madame Pomfrey would have done anything to make her digits multiply, thus the most rational conclusion was that the fingers most likely were attached to another hand, and hopefully an arm, connected to another person.
Grumbling somewhat, her eyes then made the necessary adjustments in focus to confirm the theory.
'Arm, linked to unidentified male with black hair - mystery solved'.
Hermione's girly brain breathed a sigh of relief and allowed her eyes to drift shut for some more slumber.
Less than two seconds later, her logical brain snapped them wide open, setting off all the alarm bells it could find inside her head. 'UNIDENTIFIED MALE!!! What the…'
Slowly her head craned round to try and get a better visual on the person dozing peacefully by her side. The girly part of her brain told her to calm down. 'It's probably only Harry.' Her racing heart steadied to a less arresting pace. Logical brain took over and began analysing the evidence; 'holding her hand meant it had to be someone who cared about her. The black hair narrows it down to Harry. Phew! mystery solved.' Although the more she looked at it, the more she got the feeling that the hair wasn't the right length or texture to be Harry's.
Just then 'Harry' moved his head giving her a clear view of his face.
'Well, that's the face I wouldn't have expected to see in a million years,' thought the logical part of her brain, before it went and hid in the cupboard at the back, courageously leaving girly-brain in charge of the reaction.
Luckily girly-brain went into shock preventing Hermione from screaming. She screwed her eyes shut and repeated almost mantra-like, 'Professor Snape is holding my hand. Professor Snape is holding my hand', over and over in her head. Deciding that the best course of action was no action she began to count sheep in her head willing herself to fall asleep. Her subconscious attempted to thwart her and kept turning her sheep into bats, but after three minutes it got bored and allowed her to drift back into the land of nod.
When Severus Snape awoke, barely fifteen minutes later, he was in a foul mood and had a stiff-neck. Before he even raised his head he had decided grimly that it was going to be a bad day for anyone who crossed his path.
a/n's:
Well helllooo there! I'd like to introduce you to my very little pet review monster. Isn't he cute? Look at those big mournful eyes he's got. 'Why're they mournful?' I hear you ask. Well, it's 'cos he's hungry, so please, help me feed him. Leave me a review, not for my sake you understand, but for my sweet pet. :o)
Thanks to everyone who's reviewed, I really appreciate it!