Disclaimer: see Ch. 1
VERY IMPORTANT A/N!
I apologize now for what I'm about to do. I had been planning to finish the chapter and then just apologize for taking so long to post - I had about 500 words written a good while back, but before I could finish the chapter, I got interrupted, and stuff happened, and more stuff happened, and I forgot, and … you get the idea. I had hoped that I when I got more involved in the story, I would get better about updating regularly. Then I read HBP. No spoilers here, but I'm angry enough right now that I can't even look at this, any other HP fanfic, or anything remotely HP related. Maybe once I get over it, I'll come back to this, but it will be totally AU if I do. That being said, this is an incomplete chapter, so don't read if you don't want.
Thank you to those people who did read the beginning of this and encouraged me to write, but…it's not going to happen, at least for a while
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"There is no excuse for not showing up on time!" Severus snarled at the student standing in front of him calmly. He had gone to breakfast in the Great Hall this morning in a terrible (even more than usual, that is) mood, which was not improved by seeing Hermione Granger. She had never shown up the day before, and he had ordered her to his classroom immediately upon completing breakfast. He had intended to yell at her for her insubordinate actions the day before, which he was, but it wasn't having the proper effect. Usually, when he yelled at people, they either got embarrassed and tried to apologize for their actions, or angry, which made them say things that he was later able to use against them. She wasn't doing either.
Hermione Granger stood quietly, waiting for his anger to either run out or rise to the point that Snape lost the ability to speak coherently. Unfortunately, he was closer to the second option. While he never exactly enjoyed making students cry (the headmaster always ended up asking questions that somehow made Severus feel guilty. Not much, but a little), he certainly didn't enjoy being ignored. Even though she was staring him in the eyes, he still felt like she was ignoring him.
His ranting about her conduct continued, and her calm demeanor continued. She was still staring him in the eyes, and he saw none of the trademark fear nor anger that people usually looked at him with. He was tempted to use Ligelimency to figure out exactly what was going on in her head, but the headmaster would most certainly not approve.
Refusing to give up, he decided to punish her for her tardiness the day before the same way he would punish being tardy to his class – by assigning grueling, petty tasks like the ones assigned in detention.
But his (lack of) luck held, and that order didn't go over well.
"I am volunteering, Professor Snape. I don't have to be here at all. If I decide not to show up because I feel no need to make a potion there is no call for, I don't have to. I am here because I want to help and I want to practice making potions. I don't need to practice shelling scarab beetles, or indeed anything but making actual potions."
Surprised she couldn't see smoke coming from his ears, Severus gritted his teeth. "And what do you think the headmaster would think of your blatant insubordination?"
"We agreed when I said that I would help you that for the time that I'm helping you, we're colleagues – not teacher and student. Once school starts after the break, I'm a student during class, but even then, if we're still working outside of class, I'm a colleague at that time. As a colleague, It's my prerogative to walk out of the room when you're being…"
At least she didn't start calling me names. Still, I can't believe her audacity. Colleagues! She's not my bloody colleague! I am a Potions Master, and she's a silly little know-it-all! There's no comparison whatsoever.
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