Hello all! Sorry these last two chapter have been a bit short! Hope you enjoy this one!

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Chapter Twelve

As hard as he tried to resist the fact, Snape did have to go and teach Seventh-Years Potions, for the first time since Miss Granger had passed out, boils forming on her face. Oh, how he loathed the very thought of striding out into the classroom and facing the class of snot nosed brats, who thought that just because they were in their final year, they could do anything.

He especially did not wish to see Potter or Weasley today, after so crudely denying them a visit to their best friend. Yet he did not regret that. He simply regretted allowing them into his Potions class for their final year. But at the start of the year, he didn't know what he was doing. It wasn't as if he'd admitted them into the class however, Minerva had made the choice. He had simply not had a good excuse to throw them out of their arses yet. Nor had he been able to find a good reason to throw Neville out along with them, as Miss Granger had found more discreet ways to whisper instructions into the idiot's ears.

Perhaps today would be the day, he thought with a smirk. Miss Granger would not be able to help the twits; he could catch them out, and toss thew out the door without a second thought. Oh, what a relief it would be!

Allowing the class to file past him, smirking at the way they fell dead silent the moment they set eyes on him, Snape noticed Potter and Weasley sulking even more then they usually did when entering his classroom. He sneered down at them as he made his way to the front of the room to stand behind his desk.

"Today you will be making a most difficult potion, so I suggest you all keep your minds on the task at hand if you wish to live beyond this class." Snape sneered at the class, tapping the board so that the instructions for the day's class appeared there. He then stood looking at the class before him before snapping in loud clear voice, "Begin!"

Oh, how he despised attempting to teach this potion to a class of such dunderheads, but he had little choice, seeing as it was part of the Ministry of Magic's class requirements and often showed up on the NEWTs, which the students would be facing in a little more then a month's time.

Unwillingly, he let his mind wander to Miss Granger, and wondered how she would deal with missing almost a week's worth of classes by the time she was back on her feet. He scowled to himself… what did he care what happened to the little brat? As long as she didn't have to repeat Seventh Year because of this incident, he did no care. He knew that she would not fail in anything, and would most likely repeat top marks in absolutely everything; she was a brilliant student, though he'd never tell her that.

Strolling around the dark and dank dungeons, Snape sneered at several students and the poor excuses they had for the potion they were supposed to be brewing, the Living Death potion, which allowed the drinker to appear dead for many hours. However, if not brewed correctly, the potion had many consequences. One of which that the drinker actually died. Another was when in the middle of brewing the potion –

BANG!

- The potion would explode.

Snape did not even have to turn around to know which fucking idiotic student had just exploded his potion, causing Living Death Potion to spray right across the room. The squeaks of terror said it all.

"Neville Longbottom," he said, turning around carefully, slowing, his voice dropping to a dangerously low level as he attempted not to pull his wand out and kill the foolish student who stood before his ruined cauldron. "I expected nothing else then for you to ruin this potion. And my classroom! Fifty points from Gryffindor! Detention for the rest of the week with Filch!" His icy voice rose to a roar. "GET OUT! ALL OF YOU!"

The lack of food and slept sweep through his body as he watched the potion drenched students race for the door. He knew the potion would not affect them in a negative way, but they'd have to figure that out themselves. He felt the potion seeping into his hair and knew he'd better shower quickly to clean himself up. He shouted a quick clean spell at the deserted classroom before storming into his chambers.

He was tempted to storm right through, but he decided against waking Miss Granger. Even though this was her fault! If she hadn't of gotten so ill, he wouldn't be so damn tired, so damn hungry and she might have been able to stop bloody Longbottom from destroying the classroom for the ninth time in his time at Hogwarts.

When will that foolish boy learn? Snape seethed, slamming his wand down on his cot and kicking his boots off. Miss Granger muttered something in her sleep, so he retreated to the bathroom. Quickly undressing, he flung his clothes into the basket he'd had a House Elf place there, one that automatically transferred his clothes to the school laundry. Naked, he turned the shower on and stood under the hot jet stream. He reached for his shampoo and began the tedious job of scrubbing the potion from his hair.

He was glad this was the last class of the day; he'd surely kill the next student who infuriated in his classroom today. He wondered briefly if they planned to drive him insane in his own lessons. With a snort, he didn't dare doubt that annoying brats such as Potter and Weasley would surely come up with such plans. Already he knew of a few incidents where they had purposefully wrecked havoc in his classroom, unfortunately he couldn't pin the blame on them with solid evidence, much to his disgust.

With a growl, he turned the shower off, and stepped out, grabbing a thick black towel from the rack that sat next to the toilet. Quickly drying himself, he reached for his wand to perform a drying spell on his hair. Much to his dismay, his wand was not there. He remembered throwing it onto the cot he had made for himself. How foolish, he'd not picked it up.

"Fuck. Fuck. Fuck." Snape lowered his clean face into his hands. Here he was, stranded in his bathroom, with nothing but a towel, and no wand! He could not function without his wand. Not only that, but he'd not brought any fresh clothing into the bathroom with him, they were all in the wardrobe in his bedroom. Barely a metre from where a student lay sleeping in his bed. Oh, he could summon them, couldn't he? If he had his fucking wand!

Standing up, Severus stomped a bare foot in an act of very childish behaviour. How did he get himself into this mess? And what was he going to do? While he did not enjoy working with his wand, there were several things he could not do without it… and summoning clothing from his bedroom was one of them. Wrapping the towel around his lower half, he knew he had to bite the bullet.

Taking a quick peek out of the door to make sure Miss Granger was still asleep, he stepped, wearing nothing but a towel, out into his bedroom.

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Hermione was not as asleep as Professor Snape thought. She was just rousing when she heard his swearing from the bedroom. She'd seen him stomp by about ten minutes before, flinging his wand and boots away. Trying not to giggle for that would surely hurt more, Hermione realised what was happening. Snape was stuck in the bathroom with no clothes!

Deciding to be polite and shutting her eyes and feigning sleep when he peeked into the room, Hermione could not help but open her eyes a crack when the Potions Master stepped half naked into the bedroom. It was only fair, he'd seen her naked!

Although the light was very dim, she could his body quite well. And what she saw did not please her. While it was quite obvious that the Professor was a thin man, she was almost sickened by the sight that meant her eyes. Snape was thin to the point where she probably could have counted his ribs if she'd had enough light. His arms were bones, and Hermione could not help but wonder when the last time was that he'd had a good meal. He was too skinny to be eating right, or sleeping right, or doing anything right.

What had happened to him?

Upon thinking this, Hermione already knew the answer. She became so worried about him. But when he looked as though he was going to turn around and glance at her, she gently shut her eyes properly, hoping he wouldn't be able to tell that she was indeed awake and worrying. As the obviously embarrassed man slunk back into the bathroom, clutching a new set of robes, Hermione wondered if there was any way she could help her Professor, surely she owed him for all the help he had given her.

Opening her eyes to study the canopy that hung above her head, she wondered what she could do to help. She had to do something.

She was so lost in thought that she did not notice the bathroom door open, or Snape step out into the darkened bedroom. She did notice when his voice rang quietly, almost ashamed through the chamber.

"You were awake, weren't you?"

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As it's getting late and I have school in the morning, I won't reply to any of your lovely reviews, will do that tomorrow, I pwomise! I wuv you all, thank you SO much for all the wonderful feedback you're giving me!