A/N: I meant to post an A/N for the first chapter, but of course I forgot. I'm new to writing fan fiction, and this is more of an outlet for when I have writing block. I do have most of this silly story outlined and written though, so expect uploads once a week or every two weeks. I'm going to be experimenting a lot with this, so if you don't like it, I understand. I did get a comment on my first chapter on how I was stealing lines from other fanfics, if you see this, please let me know and I'll change it. This chapter has a lot of changes in POV and doesn't really go anywhere, mostly just sets up some key characters and interactions for later in the story. Sorry again if this isn't up to snuff. Thanks for reading!
With the map in her possession, it should have been easy to start her plan: make sure Malfoy doesn't kill himself or starve to death this year. It was proving more difficult after that first week passed. One couldn't just walk up to their childhood bully, a person that hates them for the blood in their veins, and offer to take care of them.
Hermione herself knew it was insane to even notice, or care, or want to help Draco Malfoy of all people, but she had been watching him these past six weeks since term began. He looked beyond stressed. She couldn't miss the way he looked up in fear every time his parent's owl swooped down onto the breakfast table, as if it was an omen of death itself. How he held each letter with shaking hands. How he seemed to hold his breath until he read the letter in full. How only then he would relax slightly.
She shook her head from her thoughts and re-cast the warming charm she had put on during the beginning of her short break outside. She had wandered out to the Black Lake, trying to enjoy the last of the sun while it was still warm enough to be outside. It had been colder than she was expecting.
She turned to head to Hagrid's hut. She, Harry and Ron weren't taking Care of Magical Creatures this year, and she felt terrible for not having visited him yet. Maybe Hagrid could help her with her Malfoy conundrum. He wasn't the smartest or the most tight-lipped, but he was the kindest man she knew. She took the three steps up to the landing before his door and knocked.
Hagrid was surprised and happy when he opened his door to find Hermione Granger standing there. His feelings were sore after the trio had told him that they were not taking Care of Magical Creatures, but it made sense, with them being busy with everything else. Dumbledore had been letting things about the world outside Hogwarts slip. The world was darker than ever before.
She brushed past him, giving him a short tight hug and apologizing for not visiting sooner.
"Not ta' worry, I know yer busy, off saving the world." He'd said.
She smiled tightly at him and set about making tea.
"No, Hermione, let me get tha'," He said, moving in to take over the kettle.
"Nonsense, I'm the one who barged in here without an appointment, I'll make the tea. Why don't you sit down?"
He sat, smiling at the young girl's back. People probably guessed that Harry Potter was his favorite student, and they wouldn't be that far off. His parents had been friends to him. He was there, had picked up that little baby from the wreckage of his home and flown him away from the bodies of his parents. He had collected him and taken him to Diagon Ally for his first time.
He felt a fatherly affection for the boy, even when he had inadvertently led him into trouble.
Hermione Granger, on the other hand, had felt like his first friend in a long time. When he had gotten the teaching position in their third year, she had come down to his house the first day of classes, gushing about how excited she was and asking to look over his lesson plans, making little notes in the margins, making him tea.
She didn't realize what it meant to him. At Hogwarts he was well-loved by the students and staff alike, but in the outside world he was mocked and ridiculed for his parentage. He had been on the receiving end of some nasty comments and pranks during his time as a student here as well.
As soon as she had heard Buckbeak was sentenced to death she was in his hut every weekend and most weekday nights, going over laws that were little more than nonsense to him, building a defense for the doomed bird. When that had failed she and Harry had rescued him anyway.
One could say that Hermione Granger was his favorite student, even his best friend. So when she sat across from him after setting his tea in front of him and grabbed her cup with both hands, a worried expression coming over her face, reminding him of their numerous visits her fourth year, he grew concerned.
"Whats tha' matter?" He asked her.
"Do you think that some people are just bad? Born evil?" She asked him, and he was taken aback.
"Well, no," He started, not knowing exactly how to answer.
Most people didn't come to him for these sorts of things. They were correct in their assumptions that he didn't have the mind for it.
He shook his head and sighed a large sigh.
"I don' know, honestly. Sometimes, it's easier to think tha' people are born bad, makes them easier to hate. Like tha' Malfoy boy."
She flinched and he wondered if that's who she was talking about.
"He's been a right prick to you three all these years, but you and me don' know how his parents raised him. Now, I'm no' saying tha' it's an excuse for him, but maybe him and people like him ne'er learned any better."
He hoped this was enough, that he was helping. She seemed content to sit and drink tea in silence for a few minutes, and he drank his tea and monologued about the new creatures he planned to have in class and about Luna Lovegood, another gentle soul and friend, coming to feed the Thestrals. He ran out of interesting topics and there was a stretch of silence.
"Do you think that all Death Eaters are evil?" She asked, startling him.
He said the first thing that came to mind.
"Snape's a Death Eater an' he's not evil."
"Well, Professor Snape is a spy, so I reckon that it's different."
"Not in the beginnin' he wasn'. He followed He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named just like Lucious Malfoy. Though people said tha' his father, Abraxous, tha' bastard, made him join tha' Death Eaters, same with Regulus Black."
She looked at him, questioningly.
"I hear alo' o' things, Hermione. But I knew Lucious as a student, an' ne'er woulda' guessed he'd bow down to anyone, 'cept his father."
There was another bout of silence after this. Hermione finished her tea and washed both cups in the sink, the muggle way, which made him smile. She asked breifly about topics he had brought up before, but her heart wasn't in it. He didn't hold it against her when she mixed up which creatures he was showing to the third years this week, she looked like she had so much on her mind.
She grabbed her jacket fron the lumpy couch next to his door and threw it on, then tightened her scarf around her neck. She hugged him and promised to bring the boys next time, no later than next weekend. She stepped onto the small landing outside his hut, but before he could close the door against the bitter October wind, she hugged him again.
When she pulled back she looked him in the eyes with all the sincerety in the world.
"You are really very wise, Hagrid, and much smarter than most people around here."
Her conversation with Hagrid had been helpful, if not enlightening. The knowledge that Professor Snape had been a true Death Eater once put a niggling of suspicion in her mind. She tried to push it away. No one could fool Dumbledore for this long. Knowing that other Death Eaters had been pressed into service lent credence to her idea that Malfoy wasn't acting of his own volition.
With Transfiguration in twenty minutes, she rushed back up to the castle, breathless when she reached Professor McGonagal's classroom. She had just enough time to scribble a note on a scratch of parchment asking for a brief meeting after class, attach it to her essay on animal transfiguration, and set it neatly on Professor McGonagal's desk.
Hermione watched closely as Professor McGonagal read it, looked up at her and nodded once. She released a breath she didn't know she was holding, dug through her school bag, and started getting ready for class.
Minerva rubbed between her eyes as she sat at her classroom desk, waiting for the students to vacate the room. She heard Ms. Granger make excuses to her friends, something about needing to clarify her understanding of the lecture. As if she hadn't asked enough questions and demonstrated her understanding perfectly in the practical portion of today's class.
When the room was empty, Ms. Granger sat across from her, fidgiting nervously.
"What can I do for you today?" Minerva asked.
She had hoped this would be something small. An interesting line of questioning that she didn't want to bring up during class, or Ms. Granger needed her in the capacity of her Head of House. Anything but contraception, she thought.
She'd had that conversation with a fair few of her students, a blushing Misters Weasley and Potter included, but she had thought that Ms. Granger would prefer the vast knowledge of the library to her elderly professor.
"I think something is wrong with Malfoy."
Minerva sighed, disappointed that Mr. Potter would use her favorite student against her like this.
"Ms. Granger, I expected better than this from you. You know very well what kinds of things can happen if you throw those accusations around freely, the kind of harm they can do. Now if you don't have anything else to discuss, I thi-"
"Professor, I'm not here because of Harry," Ms. Granger interrupted.
Minerva couldn't do anything but blink several times. She didn't think Ms. Granger had ever interrupted her before. The younger girl took a deep breath and then started to explain.
"He's losing weight. He must have lost nearly two kilos by now. And I don't know how everyone just ignores how tired and stressed he looks all the time now. He's stopped going to classes, well maybe just Slytherin and Gryfendor classes, but that's Defense Against the Dark Arts and Potions! No matter whose side you're on, that's information you need to stay alive. I don't know how the other Professors have ignored it up to this point, honestly."
Minerva had to struggle to keep herself from gaping at Ms. Granger. She herself had noticed that the young man had been skipping Transfiguration classes. She had made a note to speak to him about his absences. She hadn't noticed if he was looking stressed or tired. She hadn't noticed his weightloss either.
The young girl, finished with her impassioned tirade, stood from the chair and hastily gathered her things.
"I'll speak with him, Ms. Granger."
The girl gave a tentative smile, thanked her for her time, gave a small wave goodbye, and was gone.
Severus Snape felt as if people could sense the stress wafting off of him. He finally had the position he had always wanted, but he had an arrogant prat to keep in line, a double life to lead, and he found that maybe his problem wasn't the subject he was teaching, but teaching itself. He wasn't cut out to be around children, period.
He was eating dinner in the Great Hall next to the man he had promised to kill at the end of the school year. It made him sick.
Minerva sat beside him as he slowly masticated his food. He tried very hard not to taste it.
"You'll never guess who came to speak to me about one of your snakes," she said, piling some chicken and peas onto her plate.
"If Potter has come to talk to you about Malfoy, his concerns are unfounded."
"Right snake, wrong lion," She said, humor in her eyes.
Severus looked to the Gryffendor table.
"Hermione Granger," Minerva said after a moment.
He was surprised, but not very much so. Where Potter led, his groupies followed. It wasn't like Ms. Granger to blatantly accuse someone of such a thing. She wasn't wrong, however.
"I'm not surprised, Minerva. You lot can pretend to believe in redemption and forgiveness, but the prejudice is on both sides. One obviously worse than the other, of course."
His pseudo friendship with the older teacher was the best thing to come out of his teaching post. How would she react when he killed Albus?
"I thought the same thing at first. I was going to brush the whole ridiculous notion off. Severus, she asked about his well being, she asked me to speak with him about it."
His eyes moved to where the Malfoy spawn was sitting. He looked thinner, but not thinner than Severus himself had been at various points in his life. Malfoy did look tired though, and stressed. In the Great Hall he looked as if he was expecting to be attacked from all sides. If this is how he was acting only six weeks in on his mission for the Dark Lord, he wouldn't last very long at all.
"I'll talk to him," He told Minerva.
"I'll do it. The concern was brought to me and he's been skipping class."
"Not just yours," Severus replied, "But he's not being receptive of me, so do what you will."
Severus could feel Minerva's eyes on him for a moment and he avoided eye contact. He didn't want to answer questions from the older woman. Stomach churning, he decided he was finished eating.
"Does seven work for you?" He asked Minerva.
At her curt nod he stood from the table. He strode down to the Slytherin table, stopping behind the blond haired twit he knew was going to make his life hell this year.
"Detention with Professor McGonagal, seven o'clock, don't be late."
All he received was a downward movement of Malfoy's head. Assuming this was good enough, and before he could do anything drastic in his frustration, he turned and left the Great Hall.