Hello all. I had the good intention of updateing on Friday but my friend wanted to hang out and we stayed up till midnight watching Harry Potter II. Then she let me borrow all of them so I ended up watching all of them on Saturday and not typing. So it fell to needing to be updated today. I know it is forty-eight hours late. Please forgive me. Gomen Nasai! Well I am sure you are bored of reading this so I shall retire and allow you the honor, nay the privelege of reading chapter XVI. I still do not own. Harry Potter or Snape or anyone/anything else from their world. Tis depressing!
I slowly pushed the door open to enter the Potions room.
"Professor Snape?" I asked upon entering. A light shone from under the entrance to his office door.
"Come in Miss Granger," I heard the silky baritone of my potions master and love call.
I took another deep breath and pushed the door open to walk in.
"Good Afternoon Professor Snape. How was your Christmas?" I asked carefully.
Professor Snape shot icy daggers at me from his eyes which were glinting in a dangerous way. "Dismal. Christmas is the worst time of year. I LOATHE Christmas. The only day that comes close to being half as dreadful is Valentine's day." He sneered as he said Valentines and there was a slight glint of sadness in his eyes. What had I done to him? Poor Severus. "Now I believe you came to work on your make-up potions because of the stupidity of Mr. Longbottom, who is no longer welcome in N.E.W.T. level potions because he is too thick to be allowed."
"Yes sir," I answered. Already I was gaining valuable information though Severus had no idea what he was revealing to me because he didn't know all of the people I'd been in my life. My dear Severus was still in love with me. He had been faithful in waiting for me. He felt pained by my memory. Well soon he would be pained by it no more. I felt better knowing that he and I could and hopefully would be together as soon as I graduated.
"I believe the potion you should start on first should be the Polyjuice Potion," Professor Snape said dipping his quill into ink and scratching something that looked like a very fancy F on a paper. "Follow me."
He stood and walked to a beautiful painting of a black haired boy with pale skin sitting on a red carpet in front of a fire next to a girl with bushy brown hair and soft doe-like brown eyes. A tall Christmas tree beautifully decorated one corner with many presents under the tree.
"Oh my," I gasped before I had a chance to hold the remark in.
"Yes Miss Granger," Professor Snape said coldly. "Do you have anything of consequence to say?"
"No sir," I said. The picture looked just like the day before I left Severus in the past. Christmas Eve night and Christmas morning. The girl smiled and winked at me as she wrapped her arms around the boy, who blushed, and she kissed his cheek.
"You will be doing all the brewing in this room. This is my personal Potions Lab. I expect everything to be left exactly how it was found. I will most likely have a potion brewing in here and you are not to bother it? Do you understand?" Professor Snape questioned sharply. His black eyes watched my every move.
"Yes sir. Thank you sir," I said quietly forcing myself to look at the ground rather than into his onyx eyes. "Very well. You may begin now. I will be just in my office keeping an eye on you," he said sweeping out of the room in his usual bat-like manner.
I opened the book rather quickly and flipped through to the right page. It didn't take me long before I had finished my first week of preparations for the brewing of the Polyjuice Potion.
"How is it going Miss Granger?" Professor Snape asked entering the room with a piece of parchment in one hand and a vial with a black and red sparkly, powdery substance in the other.
"Very well Professor. I am now prepared for the brewing for all the rest of this week," I said softly. I refused to look him in the eyes. I continued stoically and methodically putting ingredients back where I found them.
"Yes," Professor Snape said curtly. I heard him moving about and setting up a cauldron.
"Miss Granger, please get me red daisy petals," he instructed as he weighed out the ingredient he had brought into the room.
I scanned swiftly over the title of the ingredient he wanted. As soon as I located it I took it down and carried them to the table where Professor Snape had set down the other vial after he had weighed out the amount that he needed.
"'Professor' Black is having a vampire come in for the fifth years and above. I need to brew a potion that will keep her satiated during the time she is here. We can't have students being bitten by her because of the stupidity of the teacher," Professor Snape said. He spat when he said professor.
"We're making a Cruentus Potion?" I asked shock evident in my voice.
"Don't worry Miss Granger. You have nothing to worry about. You are merely assisting me," Professor Snape said coldly. "It will take seven weeks to properly brew. I expect to see you here every morning at seven thirty and every night at six fifteen. If there is another time that I will need to see you here I will let you know previously."
"Yes sir," I answered. I was thrilled to be helping Professor Snape even though he was less than thrilled to have me helping. Perhaps I'd get to know and learn more about the man my love had grown into.
Remus would love this. Harry would as well. Seven weeks of having to be with him every day and Valentine's day and his birthday were both included. I would have the opportunity to personally witness his reactions to his presents. I would get to see how hearing from Jane would alter his behavior and everything would be perfect. I just was not sure how I would tell him in the end that I was Jane that I had known and hadn't told him. I would not blame him if he was furious.
"Also Miss Granger please do not wear any loose fitting clothes. Feel free not to come in a school uniform on weekends but be sure it is appropriate for potion brewing. They will completely destroy the potion if they dip in."
"Of course Professor Snape," I said softly setting the jar down on the table next to the scale and staring up at him from across the table. I felt better just being in his presence. I was more at ease, comforted just by seeing him.
"Please weigh out two grams of petals," he requested in his silky voice as he stirred the potion twelve times clockwise without looking up as I began to weigh petals. I stared at the sparkling and shimmering powder. Was that the powdered nails of the Vampire that would be coming in? I had read about the Cruentus Potion. You had to have nails or hair to personalize the potion otherwise it would be useless.
I watched him discreetly as I weighed out the petals. I was so happy to brew something with him. I adored watching his face screw up in concentration and his graceful, elegant movements as he chopped, weighed, or added ingredients.
"Grind them into a fine powder," Professor Snape's cold, insipid voice ground out.
I flinched slightly. I didn't realize how accustomed I had become to the seventeen year old Severus and the way his voice had sounded when it had spoken to me.
I moved quickly and grabbed a white marble mortar and pestle. I ground hard for five minutes before I felt satisfied with the fineness of the powder.
"Continue grinding Miss Granger. You must grind for at least ten minutes to make the powder fine enough for this potion."
I took up the pestle up and began to grind again. I stared at my professor as I preformed the task.
He was now bent up cutting belladonna roots to three and one half centimeters in length. He added ten to the potion before stirring it sixty revolutions clockwise.
"The powder Miss Granger," Professor Snape said holding out his head without giving me a second glance.
I placed the mortar in his hand and his long fingers closed around it and he poured it sprinkling it into the potion in the shape of a crucifix.
"You may leave now Miss Granger," Professor Snape said gently as he watched the powder disintegrate and listened to it hiss furiously and turn a dark wine red.
"Yes sir," I answered and turned to leave.
"Kindly refrain from taking any of the ingredients in my office. I'm ninety-nine percent certain that it was you who stole from me five years ago. Sorry to say I can't and couldn't prove it was you are safe," Snape said and he looked up.
My face was maschino cherry red. I knew the blush gave it all away but I could do nothing to hide or help it. I can't remember the last time I was so embarrassed before a professor.
Professor Snape smirked, "My suspicion was apparently proved correct. Don't worry Miss Granger I still have no solid proof and no other teacher would ever believe it."
My cheeks continued to glow scarlet. Snape began to chuckle softly.
"If I'd known that accusing the know-it-all Gryffindor of being a deranged kleptomaniac would spark such mortification and silence I would have done it years ago," Professor Snape smirked more. "Goodbye Miss Granger."
I turned and bustled through his office quickly staring at the ground. I was still giving off a deep red glow.
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