Warning

This story is not suitable for readers under the age of seventeen. It contains sexual content, including some non-consensual, and may offend some readers. If this subject is offensive to you, please do not read this story.

Chapter 14 - Greenbottle's Tonic

Hermione stopped in disgust as she got close to the dungeon classroom. What on Earth was that smell? It was like a wall that hit her as soon as she got within three feet of the door, and it took a great deal of effort to force herself forward and into the classroom.

The Potions classroom was a mess. Harry and Ron were standing in the center of the room, with four large cauldrons around them. Their sleeves were rolled up to their elbows, and their arms were stained a dark green. The same green stained their robes, the desk, and the floor. Each cauldron was filled almost to the brim with the dark mix, bubbling loudly, and occasionally producing large bubbles, which would then pop, releasing clouds of green gas into the air, and showering the area with a heavy dust, which settled over everything. Harry's face showed smudges of green, where he had wiped his cheek with a dirty hand, and Ron had even managed to get the stuff in his hair, the red and green contrasting strongly.

Between trying not to gag at the foul smell which seemed to get stronger by the minute, and trying not to laugh at the sight of her friends (who did not seem to find the situation even remotely amusing), Hermione almost choked herself, and covered her mouth and nose in an attempt to hide both sensations.

"What are you making?" she finally managed to splutter.

"It's called Greenbottle's Tonic,' Ron answered her grumpily, "and we need to make fifteen jars of it for Professor Sprout." He pointed to the row of large empty bottles - seemingly the only things in the room that were still not green.

Harry motioned towards Snape's office. "Professor Snape said that if you wanted to work on your project, you could work in there." He quickly turned to stir one of his cauldrons, narrowly preventing it from bubbling over. "He said he'd put a charm on it, so he didn't have to smell this stuff! Urggh!"

That, at least, was a relief - partly because she needed to speak to him alone, but mostly (and this now seemed to be taking priority) to get away from that smell! She mouthed a "Sorry" to her friends, knocked at the office door, and entered in response to Snape's irritable grunt.

Severus stood hurriedly as she entered, waiting for her to close the door before speaking. "Potter told me Dumbledore stopped you!" he said urgently. "What happened?"

After a couple of relieved breaths of the cleaner air, Hermione answered him, crossing the room to perch on the aim of a chair. "We have a problem," she said simply. As closely as possible, she recounted the conversation she'd had with the headmaster, trying to remember the exact words that had been used, so that Severus could try to glean more information from them than she could.

"He said he'd heard that you had been spending a lot of time in the dungeon?" he asked, repeating her words.

Hermione nodded. "And then said that some people found you difficult to work with. He seemed to be trying to see my reaction."

The words that seemed to worry Snape most were Dumbledore's comments that if his suspicions were correct, he could not approve. What did he suspect?

"Do you think he really knows about us, Severus?" Hermione asked, tentatively, reaching for his hand.

He lifted her fingers to his lips and kissed them. "Yes," his voice was serious. "I can't be certain, but I believe that he knows everything." A faint smile caught the corner of his mouth as he re-considered this statement. "Well - maybe not everything!"

Hermione smiled at that. He was a mystery to her. For more than five years, he had been cold, aloof, harsh and even frightening. Now, he was a passionate man, with a love of life and a dry sense of humor. Had he always been this way and she'd simply missed it?

She forced her thoughts back to the problem in hand. "Professor Dumbledore said that I was old enough to make up my own mind," she said thoughtfully. "He said I should use caution and discretion." Snape said nothing, but allowed her to continue. "Assuming that he does know, does that mean that he won't interfere as long as we're discrete, even though he disapproves?"

"I just don't know, Hermione," he answered, his shoulders sagging. "Dumbledore is a law unto himself. The fact that he had said nothing to me almost makes me feel that he is not sure, but - - - I just don't know."

Hermione sighed. "I suppose all we can do now is to be discrete, and assume that he knows."

"Or rather," corrected Snape, "assume that he doesn't know! We need to draw as little attention to ourselves as possible."

Hermione thought of something else that Dumbledore had said. "What do you think he meant by 'use caution'?" she asked Severus.

Again - that smile at the corner of his mouth. "I think he was telling you to be careful about getting mixed up with someone so - dark! It's good advice, Ms. Granger."

Hermione smiled. "Actually, the phrase he used was 'a powerful wizard'! I like the sound of - - - "

Both of them were startled by a sudden knock at the door. Hermione instantly jumped up and moved towards the store cupboard, and looked deeply engrossed in searching for a missing bottle by the time Ron had opened the door at Snape's growl.

"Sir," Ron said, poking his head round the door, "we've run out of Bowerroot." As he spoke, he made the most of the air inside the office, then hurried back to the classroom, as the professor snapped out instructions on where to find more of the ingredient.

"Maybe it would be best," began Hermione, as the door closed behind him, "if we didn't see each other tomorrow. It might let things cool down a little." She hated saying it. Not seeing Severus would be torture, but they could not let things get out of hand with Dumbledore so interested in what was going on.

Snape seemed to see this too, but the pain in his eyes was evident. "Not seeing you could be the death of me, Hermione," he moaned. "But you're right. It's Saturday tomorrow, and maybe they - - - " he nodded towards the classroom, and Ron and Harry, " - - - would be less suspicious, too, if you spent the day with them."

Feeling unable to stay in the office for too long, without raising suspicion, Hermione left shortly afterwards. She stopped at the doorway to give him a long and longing kiss, but eventually had to force herself to leave. She was a little behind on her schoolwork, and headed towards the common room, making the most of her time alone. It was very late by the time Harry and Ron returned to the Gryffindor tower, still green and reeking of that foul-smelling potion. As they, in turn, questioned her about what Dumbledore wanted, she realized, with a pang, that she had not mentioned the possibility of her work being published to Severus. She couldn't wait to talk to him about it!

But before she could do that, she had to last through the whole of Saturday without him! Tomorrow was going to be a very long day!