Chapter 6

The day after her late night meeting with Snape, Hermione sat in the common room carefully going over all the information contained on the pages she had. It was a truly complicated potion. Even more so than the polyjuice potion she had brewed back in the second year. From what she could tell everything seemed to be right, but, as Snape had said, there was something missing from it. After looking over the formula one last time her eyes widened with delight.

"I figured it out!" She yelled to no one in particular as she jumped up and ran to the library to check her theory.

When she got to the library she stopped all of a sudden, shocked. There, at a table near the back, was no one other than Ron and Harry. Not wanting to seem as if she was avoiding them she picked out the book she wanted and took a seat at their table where she was greeted with two nervous smiles.

"Morning, Hermione." Ron said as he flipped open the book in front of him.

"'Lo, Hermione." Harry said as a light shade of red crept into his cheeks.

The girl just blinked at them figuring they were talking about girls or something before she walked in. She simply smiled and nodded to them both then began skimming through the page of the large, leather bound book in her hands.

"Um.." Ron started trying to think of something to say to break the awkward silence that had fallen over them. "Whatcha reading there, Hermione?"

"Hmm….Oh!" She looked up from the pages not wanting to lie but knowing she couldn't tell them the truth either because she had promised. "I'm doing research for someone."

Harry's mouth dropped open at this statement. "You always tell us to do our own homework and here you are helping someone, who's not even your best friend?"

"Yea!" Ron added in.

All Hermione could do was sit there and try to think of a good excuse.

"Well, who's it for, Hermione?" Harry questioned.

"Um…" She cleared her throat and glanced down at the pages once more where something caught her eye. "I have to go!" She said as she jumped up from the table and headed down to Snape's office.

Hermione burst thru the door forgetting to knock then dropped the book on his desk. The dark haired man behind the desk just looked up and stared at her. "I figured it out!" She said with a grin. "I found what you are missing."

Snape just continued to stare at her.

"I remember reading about this type of potion in my fourth year here. In order to make it work you need the blood of the two people it will be affecting." She opened the book to the page she had marked and pointed out where she had found this information.

The potions master quickly read over the part the girl had indicated and frowned. Damn it, she was right. "Well, I suppose I will soon be finding out who he wants. You can go now and don't tell anyone." Hermione sighed hearing the tone of misery in her teachers voice as she turned to leave. "And, Miss Granger, thank you."

Having become suspicious of the way Hermione was acting, Harry decided to pay a little visit to Snape later that night. He slipped out of the common room around eleven and proceeded down to the dungeon. He found the man as he was just leaving his private quarters. The heavy over cloak signified that he was headed outside and this bothered the boy for some reason. "Where are you going?" He whispered loudly enough the other man could hear him.

The potions master jumped slightly not expecting anyone to be down there. The moment he heard Potters voice he feared the girl had not kept her promise of not telling anyone. "It's none of your business, Potter, now get back to bed."

"Not until you tell me where you're going." He demanded.

"Why do you care it has nothing to do with you." Snape replied.

"This is about the potion then? Did you get it finished? Did you finally figure out what you needed to complete it?" Harry said with a trace of hope in his voice.

"Yes." He said finally turning to face the boy behind him. "I'm taking it to him tonight."

"That's…great." The Gryffindor said sadly. "Now you will finally get what you, well who you want."

"Yes, I will. Now, get to bed." Was the last thing the older man said before taking off at a brisk pace down the dark hallway.

Harry turned around slowly then started heading to his room. He couldn't understand why he was so upset by the potion being finished. The boy stopped suddenly. Had he fallen in love with Snape? No! it's not possible he could never think of the older man like that. But then why was he so saddened by the fact that his teacher would now get to be with the person he wanted. The person Harry was unable to discover on his own.

He continued walking down the hallway trying to figure this all out. 'Oh well' he thought to himself 'maybe things will get better once Snape is happy'? He reached the portrait then muttered the password and climbed into the common room where he was met by Hermione.

"Is everything alright, Harry?" She asked as he pulled off his cloak.

"I guess it is." He sighed in reply.

"If I tell you something, do you promise not to be mad at me?" Hermione asked.

Harry nodded. There was nothing she could ever tell him that would make him mad at her especially when he felt this way.

"I helped Snape finish the potion. He didn't want me to tell you that I was helping him though. I'm the one who found what he was missing and I'm worried about Voldermort having that kind of power. I feel so stupid, I never should have told him what it was." Hermione said as she wrapped her arms around her stomach and shivered.

"I'm sure he knows what he's doing." Was the response she got. "I'm going to bed now. I'm tired." Saying that he walked past her and up the steps to his room. He dropped himself on his bed and laid back. There was no way he was going to sleep tonight so he started thinking of ways this potion could change the war at hand.