Disclaimer- im not JK Rowling. Never was, never will be, but in the secret places of my mind.
"I am a Gryffindor. I am brave. I have to be, otherwise I wouldn't be Gryffindor"
Hermione repeated this mantra over and over in her head, trying to build herself up for her upcoming meeting with Snape. However, every time she felt strong enough to face him, his image popped into her head, and her strength vanished. Snape, with his greasy lank hair, his snarky attitude, his bad manners, his inability to be nice. All these things made Hermione well, not fear her professor, but defiantly dislike him greatly.
She sighed.
She gave up trying to be strong. She knew that it wouldn't help anyways. Her strength would last not quite so long once she was in his presence. However, she also knew that he could only be SOO mean to her, since he did, in fact, need her help.
That thought did nothing but make her more nervous.
She was more afraid of making an ass of herself, then of her former professor. However, making an ass out of herself in front of said professor made her cringe. He would slaughter her. Humiliate her, and then ruin her life, somehow. She shuddered.
"Ah, Miss Granger. Where you planning on gracing me with your presence sometime today, or do you truly enjoy standing around like an idiot?" Mr. Snarky himself said, silently coming up beside Hermione.
"I, uh" Hermione stuttered, looking around herself, at the floor, her shoes, anything, but the slimy bastard.
Severus Snape smirked.
"Please do try to keep your air headedness to a minimum in my lab. Any mistakes will not be tolerated." Snape said, stalking past her, towards the lab, robes billowing behind him.
Hermione had no choice but to follow him. She hadn't realized that she was late for their meeting; otherwise she would have given up on her mental conversations. Not that she was about to tell that to Snape, who would only glare at her.
They walked through the house, the headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix. There were many members now, especially now because Voldemort had made his presence known. Harry and Ron, as well as herself, had been granted membership when they graduated Hogwarts, only days ago. The golden trio now all lived at headquarters, which made them feel more important, and able to help.
Hermione was glad that she would have her friends there with her. Ginny, the only Weasley daughter was also staying at headquarters for the summer, for which Hermione was grateful. She knew that she would need a female companion to help keep her sanity. She loved Harry and Ron, but there were some thing that she just simply couldn't talk to them about.
Snape came to a portrait, one that Hermione hadn't noticed before. He halted her, with the wave of his hand. She looked at the portrait, which was the same dragon that was her former dorm guardian. Or was it? Hermione couldn't tell.
Snape whispered something to the dragon, which opened. Hermione looked at Snape, and then to the open door, and walked into the secret lab of Professor Snape.
Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed the dragon wink at her. Hermione smiled. It was her dragon.
Hermione first noticed the huge, steel table, which took up the entire center of the room. It was completely spotless, and orderly. The whole lab was, which didn't really surprise Hermione. She knew that Snape hated mess, and it could potentially be quite dangerous when working with some of the potion ingredients.
Snape billowed past her, and went to a cupboard in the corner of the room. He rummaged around, and then pulled out a rather large book. He brought it over to the steel table, and beckoned Hermione over to see it.
Hermione went over quickly, eager to learn something new, and to get started on this potion.
"Now, Miss. Granger, this is an ancient potion text, dating back thousands of years. The Headmaster restored what he could, but it is still in terrible condition. Therefore, before we start, we must copy out what we need to, in order to prevent the text from crumbling anymore then it has." Snape said, moving to another part of the desk, and bringing forth ink and parchment. Hermione watched as he did so, wondering what else this lab hid from view.
"The potion that we will be making is rather expansive, and I must ask you to ask no questions, until the text is fully copied." Snape sneered at her. "Here is a chair, copy the potion as I recite it."
Hermione, eager to be the little Miss know it all, decided not to argue, and pulled the parchment towards her. She dipped the quill, and sat, waiting for the recitation to begin.
They spent the better part of the morning copying/reciting the potion. Hermione obediently copied the potion in her neat little handwriting, and made a second and then a third copy for herself, and Dumbledore, respectively.
The potion contained many ingredients that were incredibly rare, but not impossible to find. The arithmancy part of the potion was fairly straight forward, as far as Hermione could tell, but it would be time consuming, since it was quite complex. Hermione could truly appreciate what she was about to learn. She just wished that she could have a better working companion.
While Hermione was making the final copy of the potion, Snape studied her. The bane of his existence for 7 years and counting. There were certain qualities that Miss. Granger had that Severus could appreciate, but they were far and few between. As far as he was concerned, she was an annoyance. One that needed to be gotten rid of as soon as humanly possible.
"I'm all done, Professor." Hermione said, breaking into Severus's thoughts. Hermione stood from her chair, and arched her back. She had been sitting for far too long.
"Good. Deliver a copy to Dumbledore. Study the potion tonight, and we shall resume this session tomorrow. Do not be late." Snape said.
Hermione grabbed the parchment and headed to the door. As far as Snape went, he was downright civil during the session. That thought made Hermione stop, mid-step.
"Are you truly that scatter-brained that you cant remember you were leaving?" the silky voice behind her said.
Hermione turned her head, shot him a glare, and stormed out of the lab.
So much for civil.