A/N: Yet another chapter taking up more words than I originally thought it would. Oh well, things will just have to happen later. Once again, a big thank you to everyone! Did everyone have a good break?

Disclaimer: Everything belongs to J.K. Rowling.

Blind Love

Severus Snape eyed the simmering potion with a single-minded intensity, watching for the telltale sign that it was time for the next ingredient to be added. Suddenly, a loud bang exploded in his Potions lab and Severus instinctively shielded his face with his arms. A few moments later, he cautiously lowered his arms and saw, to his surprise and confusion, the potion still bubbling away innocently in his cauldron.

"I think the potion hasn't blown up, Severus, you can stop looking so apprehensive now."

Severus whipped his head around and saw the offending person standing at the entrance to his lab, looking devilishly innocent. "I was not apprehensive," he spitted.

"Of course not," Mel replied, in what Severus thought was a very bad attempt at a pacifying voice. She was clearly ready to burst into a giggling fit; she wanted to laugh at him. Severus had learnt quickly when his assistant first arrived that she was from the same league as Albus and Minerva, and intimidation was not a deterrent for her. However, Severus also discovered that she was more easily distracted than the other two, and he had exploited the information several times to his advantage. Clearly, it was time to do so now to end his embarrassment. He changed the subject abruptly, "How was the class?"

The expression on Mel's face darkened, and Severus could swear he saw thunderclouds gathering in his lab. His assistant was clearly in a towering mood, which he supposed accounted for the slamming of his door earlier. Whatever it was his students have done, they had done a very good job of it. Severus briefly toyed with the idea of congratulating them, just to see the shock on their faces. However, he had it on good authority that Madam Pomfrey would personally sign his application form for the Headless Hunt if she were to be suddenly loaded with a whole class of students in the hospital wing. Since Severus had no interest in sports of any kind anyway, he thought he might as well safe Poppy the trouble.

"Never ever ask me to take your classes again!" Mel hissed at him.

Severus held up his hands in a gesture of surrender and replied, "You said all those potion fumes were going to your head. You said you wanted something challenging." Mel glared venom at him, and he calmly diverted her attention away from himself, "What happened anyway?" Severus listened patiently as Mel burst into a tirade about the students in her first ever Potions class. "And so," she said at the end of it, "I gave them detention."

Severus nodded, agreeing with her decision, the third year Ravenclaws were a handful sometimes. "Detention with Filch?"

Mel shook her head. "No, with you."

"What?" Severus all but shouted. "You gave them detention with me? What have I done?"

Mel gave him a look that clearly told him what she thought about mentally subnormal wizards teaching subjects as dangerous as Potions. "Well, you're the last person the students would want to be stuck in a detention with, Severus. It was the worst punishment I could give them." She continued after a pause, "And you didn't do anything, by the way, they did."

"I know that," Severus snarled. He paced the room, frustrated that he was stuck with detention when all he wanted to do that night was work on his Potions research. He turned to tell Mel just what he thought about her springing a surprise detention on him, and saw that she was peering curiously at his cauldron. She wrinkled her nose at the unattractively odour and said, "What are you making anyway?"

Severus mumbled angrily.

"Sorry, didn't catch that."

" The Wolfsbane Potion."

"Oh," Mel replied before narrowing her eyes at the potion. "I didn't think the potion turned this shade of colour."

"How would you know?" Severus shot back. He was starting to get really annoyed with her know-it-all attitude.

"Don't you know?"

"No."

Severus thought Mel looked thoroughly confused at his reply. Didn't she realise that there wasn't a solution to the werewolves' monthly problems yet? Just what do they teach at Beauxbatons?

"Oh," Mel said and turned her head away in what Severus recognised as her thoughtful gesture. "Oh," she finally said again, and her eyes grew round behind her glasses as though she had just realised something. "You're inventing the Wolfsbane Potion?"

Severus sighed an almost defeated "Yes." Just when he thought the woman had some level of intelligence in her, she jumped up and gamely proved him wrong. He then noticed her intense scrutiny of himself. Mel was looking searchingly at his face, her eyes narrowed in concentration. There was an unreadable expression on her face. For a moment, Severus imagined he saw admiration and respect, but the look was gone as quickly as it came. What was she thinking now? Severus wished he knew.

"Would you like my help?" she finally said.

Severus glanced at her, suddenly feeling very tired. Would he like her help? Severus thought that if she hadn't offered he would probably be begging her. He was at his wit's end, having consistently failed for over two years in producing any resemblance of success in his research. Perhaps it was time he accepted some much-needed help.

He nodded, and was rewarded with a brilliant smile from Mel.

Hermione ran her fingers through her hair in frustration. She had initially thought that the potion would be easy to invent. After all, hadn't she read about it in her third year? Clearly, it was not so. Not for the first time did Hermione fervently wish that she had remembered to look into the process for making a Wolfsbane Potion back then. How could she have forgotten to include it in her essay for Professor Snape? She could have gotten a better grade! After Severus had accepted her offer of assistance, Hermione had returned to the Room of Requirement and asked for books related to the Wolfsbane Potion but on this occasion, the magical room failed her. Hermione was disappointed, but reasoned that the room couldn't possible provide her with things that do not even exist yet. It made sense; life could never be that easy. Still, she was lucky that the vaguely remembered that the potion turned smoky upon completion.

Right now, it was a vile, murky colour, and despite her protestations, Severus firmly refused to believe that he was on the wrong track. They had argued about it for more than two turns of the hourglass and were currently exhausted; mentally, physically and emotionally. Why wouldn't he accept her suggestion of adding salamander scales during the last stage of brewing? How was Hermione going to persuade him that she knew how the end product should look without giving away what she already knew?

Finally, Severus spoke, "Look, Mel. I really think I've got it this time (Hermione shook her head), but we don't really know, do we?" He stopped to let his words sink in. At Hermione's reluctant nod, he continued, " So, what I propose we do is to run the test on someone. The full moon's in two days, we can observe the effects then."

Hermione snorted in disbelief, "We are not running any tests on anyone until we are sure that it won't kill them," she said firmly. Severus could even hear the hardness in her tone. "Besides, where can you find a werewolf on such a short notice?"

He replied, nonchalant, "I know one."

Hermione started at him. Was he lying? How often do you get to meet a werewolf, anyway? Let alone know one well enough to have him or her agree to be subjected to the possibility of being poisoned? Hermione thought along those lines for a moment before realisation hit her with an impact stronger than anything the Hogwarts Express could deal her with. "Oh, no," she drawled angrily, and her voiced turned accusatory. "You will not poison Lupin, accidentally or not. I will not allow it."

Hermione regretted those words the instant it left her lips. Severus narrowed his eyes at her. "How do you know Lupin?" he asked.

"Err…Professor Dumbledore told me about him," Hermione offered feebly.

Severus was still suspicious. Dumbledore had always stressed the need for secrecy where Lupin's condition was concerned. The Headmaster would not go round telling everyone about his precious Gryffindor's little secret. Lupin had not come to Hogwarts since Mel arrived, so how did she know about him? Suspicion bubbled under his unnaturally clam demeanour. He grabbed her forcefully by her arms, and Hermione was shocked to feel his warm breath on her face as he drew her dangerously close to himself. His sudden closeness reminded her of past events that she would rather forget; her husband had held her just as intimately before, but the intimacy had been a fake. "And Dumbledore told you that Lupin's a werewolf," he whispered venomously. It sounded more like a statement than an actual question.

Hermione nodded fearfully, her eyes squeezed shut. She had experienced this anger only once before, and the results had been disastrous. Severus tightened his hold on her arms and Hermione whimpered involuntarily. To her surprise, he then flung her away from him and turned his back on her. Hermione found enough courage to open her eyes and waited with baited breath to see what would happen next.

When he finally spoke again, it was with forced calm. "Lupin agreed to take my experiments. He has been doing it for two years now." He paused. Hermione waited for him to continue, and when he did, she realised that he had spoken with bitterness, "He has never died from it before, I doubt he will this time. Lupin will be here before the full moon." There was a note of finality in his voice and Hermione did not have the heart to argue with him.

That night, Severus lay awake on his bed, replaying the events of the day. He wondered why he had let Mel off, when his instinct had cautioned him against the woman. She was hiding something important from him, and possibly from Albus as well. This could make her a danger to everyone in Hogwarts. Voldemort had barely been gone for a few years, but for the first time in his life, Severus felt that he could trust the people around him, even if he had never shown it. However, the memories of lies and deceit were not so far away, and like called to like. Mel's lie had been as transparent to him as the Hogwarts ghost. Severus was angry that she had shown herself to be so untrustworthy, and was even angrier at the fact that he had fallen for her soft voice and fierce intellect in the first place. He had wanted to force the truth from her, either through Veritaserum or Legilimency. However, her whimpered of pain had awoke unfamiliar feelings in him; Severus had felt a pierce through his heart. He had let go of her out of shock more than anything else. Suddenly, the need for answers to be exposed was overshadowed by Severus' desire to ignore the blatant truth, to believe that Mel was the person he had thought her to be. He now realised that exposing Mel's deceit would meant denying himself the feelings he had had for her for quite some time. Could he not find it in his heart to give her a chance? If she really weren't who she said she was, then there would be time enough to expose her, wouldn't it? Poets have said that love was blind, and Severus used to scoff at them. But right now, he found himself gladly wanting to be blindfolded if it meant he had a chance to love Mel.