"So what is it, what's wrong?" Ginny asked leaning up. She had been lying on her bed, reading a book.
Hermione looked down biting her lip for a while, then began to speak, "You know just now, when I said I was going for a book, well, that wasn't strictly true."
She took a deep breath before carrying on; "I went to see Professor Snape"
"What for?" Ginny had got up now and sat on the edge of her bed, looking at Hermione curiously.
"I wanted to..to tell him what I thought of him, because of the other day, when he told me off in class for spilling my potion. He was very mean to me, but I suppose he was right, it could have been bad if the potion had been a more dangerous one." Hermione said, sniffing and wiping away a tear.
"Oooh, that man, he is so vile! It's not as if you do that sort of thing all the time, is it? Once in your whole time at Hogwarts, you spill a little potion, big deal!" Ginny answered, pouting furiously. Standing up, she walked over to Hermione and sat beside her, putting a comforting arm around her shoulders.
"Look, why don't we tell the boys? We could play a trick on him to get him back, that would be fun!" She smiled, raising her eyebrows expectantly at her friend
"Hermione suddenly looked up in horror at the prospect of this, "No! You mustn't tell the boys! Please Ginny, you've got to swear you'll keep this strictly between us!"
"Alright, I will, but I don't see why.." Ginny started, but Hermione cut her off
"Promise me Ginny! I don't want them getting into trouble now, not in their final year, I just want them to concentrate on passing their exams!" Hermione pleaded, desperately.
"Okay, okay! I won't tell them then" Ginny gave in at last, but Hermione could see suspicion, wrinkling her brow, slightly.
They both went to bed at about 10.30 after Hermione had tried, amazingly successfully, considering the night she'd had, to finish her homework. She'd kept going until sleepyness had begged her eyes to close and she could do no more.
Her sleep was troubled though; she dreamt that she had found herself in bed with Professor Snape in the potions classroom. One minute it had been empty, the next it was full of grinning students, laughing, nudging and whispering to one another. She had looked horrified, but Professor Snape had just looked at them, then back at her and joined in with the laughter. Suddenly Ron had burst in through the door; he had looked at her shaking his head with tears in his eyes and then run from the room. She had tried to follow him but she couldn't move off the bed, too weak to move.
She woke up with a start the next morning and decided that she would never put herself in the position where she would be alone with the dark potions master ever again.
For the next four weeks, things carried on as normal. She buried herself in her books and her schoolwork, something she always did when stressed or in need of comfort or solace. At least it made her feel good knowing she was getting her work done. As for her relationship; Ron and her were going through a bit of a bad patch, as she had been reluctant to have sex with him recently, having used every excuse she could think of not to. He had gone into one of his sulks, which nothing she tried to do to make it up to him would bring him out of it. She just couldn't make love to him when she kept seeing Snape on top of her in her head, instead of Ron and that frightened her. Was it because she wished it was him or because she was still traumatised? She didn't know for sure.
As for Potions lessons, Snape seemed to be going a little easier on her than usual, every now and again giving her furtive, knowing looks. Every time he looked in her direction though, she immediately looked down, blushing. This got a few curious looks from Harry but he said nothing.
Another four weeks later, spring had most definitely sprung and it was getting warmer, being the month of May now. Hermione and Ron and sometimes Harry and Ginny aswell had taken to walking in the grounds in the evenings. A lot of other students also had the same idea, but Ron and Hermione usually managed to find, an out of the way spot, to be alone. Hermione had agreed to start having sex again by now, but it didn't feel the same as it had before, not bad, but just not as good. She hoped the residual feelings she had had after the evening spent with Severus Snape would soon fade and she would feel normal again, as every-time she saw him lately, her heart leapt and her belly clenched with nerves. When he came anywhere near close to her, she felt hot and felt herself start to blush. Trying to avoid him was difficult when she had a double potions lesson every week and also saw him around the school.
The Easter Holidays arrived and Hermione planned to spend them getting on with her work and relaxing with her friends. Suddenly though Harry announced that he wanted to carry on with their experiment of trying to resurrect the creature, called an 'Adsecular', which simply means 'servant'. They had put it on the back burner for a while because Harry hadn't been getting any more bad dreams lately, but apparently now they had started again.
They had got nearly all of the ingredients still stored away safely until they needed them and had discovered that the last Friday of the holidays was the perfect time to do the experiment, as there was to be a full moon.
Hermione had memorized the potion and in 'moaning Myrtle's bathroom they mixed it up, knowing they wouldn't be disturbed there. There was only one missing ingredient, the full moon. It had said in the book that the full moon had to be seen reflected in the potion in order for it to work.
They had to use somewhere underground in order to contain the creature, not knowing yet how controllable it would be, but needed somewhere with a window also, so as to let the light of the moon in. After a lot of searching, they found an underground cave that had a mouth, though small, that allowed the outside sky to be seen, with an almost perfect view of the moon.
So that night the foursome (Ginny had been let in on what they were up to this time) went down to the cave with the mixed potion, all of them filled with trepidation. Harry nervously placed the potion on the floor, making sure it was in the right place, so that the moon reflected in it. Then he spoke the words, that Hermione had again memorised, to begin the ritual. Everyone waited with baited breath, but nothing happened, apart from a little vapour escaping. They waited, watching it for an hour, but still nothing happened.
"I told you it wouldn't work" Ginny said, as she'd been quite sceptical, when told of the plan.
"It will, we must have missed something out!" Hermione said, annoyed at Ginny's defeatism. She thought that she must have read something wrong, which wasn't like her atall, but the night she had read the book had been quite an eventful one and maybe she had made a mistake.
"Maybe it's me" Harry added miserably, "maybe it just won't work for me!"
"Cheer up mate, Hermy must have made a mistake or something, go and check will you babe?" Ron said looking from Harry to her
"Okay" said Hermione rolling her eyes, and getting up "I'll need the invisibility cloak though, to get in the Library unseen!"
"I'll come with you" Ginny offered, and Hermione gratefully accepted, she really didn't want to be roaming the school alone, even with the cloak on, as she didn't want to risk bumping into Professor Snape on one of his patrols.
The two girls covered themselves with the cloak and made their way up to the Library, all the time looking out for any teachers out after hours, or even worse – Filch or his cat. They saw no one and after climbing the several flights of stairs it took to get there, reached their destination. Hermione unlocked the door and they walked in, heading straight for the Restricted Section.
Hermione felt very nervous, the memory of what had happened the last time she had done this had suddenly come flooding back.
After taking off the cloak, Hermione got the 'Ancient Monster' book down off the shelf and began to read. Ginny sitting on the opposite side of her. She read and re-read the passage on the resurrection of the 'Adsecular', then spotted something she hadn't noticed before – a section of very tiny writing. It was in Latin and even though she understood most of the language, she tapped her wand on it to reveal it's message in English.
"Ginny! Go and tell the boy's quickly! It says, 'a drop of blood from the Recipient of the servant, is needed for the ritual to suceed!' Go and tell them quickly!" Hermione said urgently to Ginny who jumped up immediately, readying herself to go.
"There's more here but I seem to be having trouble getting it to translate and I can't make it out. I'll come down when I've done it" Hermione explained, squinting and continually tapping her wand on the page, uttering various spells.
Ginny took the invisibility cloak, promising to come back up and fetch Hermione once she had told the boys what they needed to know.
Once again Hermione was left alone in the Restricted Section, completely absorbed in her work, forgetting about everything else for a moment.
After about 15 minutes she still hadn't had any luck getting the passage in the book to become any clearer and was starting to give up, feeling extremely frustrated. She leant back in the rather uncomfortable library chair, stretched, easing her stiff back and then rubbed her aching shoulders. She was just thinking how tired she was and that it would be really nice now just to go to bed, when she heard a low creaking noise.
This sudden noise caused fear to streak through her; it was the sound of the Library door being opened. She stood up and rushed to hide behind a darkened bookcase.
"Oh! It's just Ginny coming back for me!" Hermione thought suddenly, feeling relieved and scolded herself for being so paranoid. She went as to come out from her hiding place, but as she listened she realised the footsteps were not Ginny's. They were even and heavy; Hermione knew them at once, having heard them so many times before.
Her heart started beating hard against her chest and her breaths came in sharp gasps. She felt warm and clammy, her palms and forehead beginning to sweat. Her belly was clenched with fear and anticipation of what was to come.
The footsteps continued their way down the library, the sound of every one making Hermione's heart, beat a little faster.
"Please don't find me! Please don't find me!" Hermione begged, clasping her hands together up by her mouth.
The footsteps came closer, then stopped suddenly and she knew he was now standing behind the bookcase where she was hiding. She hardly dared breathe, as the sound might give her away, remembering all that had happened with him before.
Then it struck her, what was she so afraid of? She could take him on! She knew he had power, but then didn't she also? No, she wasn't going to let him scare her anymore! Her mouth was set in a resolute line and her wand was held out as she prepared herself to meet him head on.
He turned the corner then, his lit wand held out in front of him, seeing Hermione immediately.
"We meet again Miss Granger, this is starting to become quite a habit with you isn't it?" Professor Snape said sternly, but with a hint of sarcasm.
Hermione looked at him, immediately feeling the strength she had previously found, fading away and her nerves coming back, but she was determined not to show it.
"I'm not scared of you anymore!" Hermione said trying to convince herself, as much as him
"Oh really, you could of fooled me, Everytime I look at you your cheeks burn red, whenever I come anywhere near you, you scuttle away like a little frightened mouse!" Snape said, smiling condescendingly at her.
Hermione couldn't think of anything to say to that, as she knew it to be mostly true, so she kept her mouth shut. Holding her wand out in front of her defensively, she began to walk forward. Then she remembered something and smiled
"Harry and Ron know where I am and they have the Maruaders map, so they'll see that you're with me! They'll be here like a shot, to help me!" she felt triumphant, this would stop him in his tracks!
He didn't look worried though and reached into his robe calmly, producing something horribly familiar to her.
"This Marauders Map.. by any chance? The game is up Hermione! You forget that I can read minds, especially one as open to me as yours was. I knew what you were planning weeks ago, I was just waiting for when you would try and carry it out and it now the waiting is over!" He stepped closer to her then, smiling evilly.