Chapter 15:

I'm A Potions Master Damnit

Beta and co-author Lukanicus

"Professor where's Harry today, we haven't seen him in a couple of days and no one seems to know where he is" Hermione had decided that as she couldn't find out anything herself she would ask all of the teachers in sequence, one would surely know where he was.

"Draco hasn't been seen in days either sir," offered Pansy Parkinson who was naturally very fond of the Slytherin boy, and would have hated any harm to come to him, Not unless she could watch of course.

"Do I look like the Hogwarts equivalent of the yellow pages? Eww lets ask Snape where this person is! Or let's ask him what's for breakfast!" Clearing his throat and speaking in the most devilish tone possible he addressed the classroom.

"Let me make this very clear for you insignificant little trolls. I know that the puny vacuous space that occupies the expanse between your ears is supposed to contain a brain. However, when looking at Weasley and Goyle, I just shudder to think of the contamination that must have been done to the wizarding gene pool, when they were born. But get this straight, I do not know, nor do I have any interest in knowing where POTTER or Mr. Malfoy are, or are not. And it certainly isn't any of your business any way Miss Busy Body Granger."

"Humph, I was only asking as you seem to be one of the last people to see both of them before they disappeared, and well Harry has got a history of coming a cropper where you and Malfoy are involved." Hermione seemed to have lost all bounds of teacher pupil limitations. She didn't care that she was speaking out of turn, and didn't care that she may get detention. Hell, she didn't care if she got expelled. Today was not a day to mess with Mione.

"Granger get out of my class you insufferable little harridan, and fifty points from Gryffindor. Maybe Miss Granger could learn to practice some more restraint next time she opens her increasingly large mouth AGAIN."

Gasps of horror from the class as Hermione didn't even attempt to leave the room; she sat there looking coldly at Snape. "Do you know what its like to have a friend who you love disappear without a trace and then not be able to know where he has gone and feel powerless to do anything about it?"

"Miss Granger, what ever sufferings you are going through in your relationships with Potter and Weasley, kindly keep them to yourself and never presume about my intentions towards anyone." The last statement he spat at her with cold revulsion.

"Of course he doesn't know Mione. How can he? He is so crippled with hating Harry that he wouldn't care a fuck if he was dead, or injured. And he would probably laugh in our faces as we carried his lifeless body through Hogwarts to his resting place beneath the stars. You call yourself a teacher, you're a FUCKIN…" Hermione looked over at the voice she knew could only belong to one person. The one true reliable soul she had always had in all her years at Hogwarts. Without question, there was always Ron.

"ENOUGH, how dare you tell me that I don't care. How dare you insinuate that I have no feelings! I'm a Potion Master god dammit."

The class sat in deep shock at the seeming crumbling of the most feared teacher in Hogwarts history Professor Snape.

"I shall tell you of love and loss you don't know either, none of you."

Snape looked up to the picture on his wall. The picture Hermione knew to be Sirius Black as a youth and in true thespian fashion addressed it.

I have loved and lived,
I have lost and died.
The line between the two was thin,
one false move and it can be blown away.
Like a feather in the wind,
the power it wields rises up like a storm.
No person can control it;
It becomes a needed piece of your being.
Once gone it can never be replaced,
Leaving you cold, and empty.
Hungry you will become,
Starving without relief to be seen.
Reaching for something close enough to touch,
Yet far enough away to scream.
Nothing can ever describe the feeling,
A feeling of completeness.
But with joy comes pain,
And with pain comes sorrow.
It's a circle,
A never ending circle.
Once you enter the circle there is no escape,
Held forever within its walls.
Cruelly teased with a dream,
A dream that will be shattered .
With no mending,
Once gone never to return.
Leaving you an empty shell,
of your former self.
And yet the circle continues,
Never ending its cycle.
Only to let you think you have found a way,
A way to fill the void.
Only to be taken away,
leaving you less and less the person you were.
The person trapped within these walls,
Doing the best you can.
Trying to satisfy everyone,
Giving pieces of yourself freely.
Only to be torn apart,
Viscously by the cycle.
Leaving you to realize,
There is no escape,
From within these walls.

Hermione was clearly upset. She realised that the power of these reflections was not solely Snape's. They were hers and everyone else in the room that had in any way lost a loved one. Feeling humbled for the second time in two days she got her bag and started walking to the door, as she was previously requested, and opening it turned to look back at Ron.

She wanted to say to him. 'I love you too. Though not the way you want me to, not yet, but I'm working on it, I will get there, soon, I promise. Just be patient with me.' But instead, she settled for a smile, and turning to Snape, "I'm sorry sir. I didn't mean to be so rude. Ron and I are very upset at the moment and we have not slept well. Please forgive our outburst."

"Very well, but you will stay at the end of class and explain your behaviour. Now sit down."

The potions class flew by, and strangely enough neither Ron nor Mione were even remotely concerned as to their punishment. They had fought without Harry together as a team, and they realised at that moment that was what they always seemed to have been.

"I am not going to say anymore about your punishment. It was fitting apology seeing you grovel at the doorway." Neither Ron nor Mione remembered any such grovel but thought it wise to stay quiet.

"Potter and Draco are together, and safe. And before you ask where, I can only say that they are together and that is that. Now if I hear you speak of this to any one, I will conjure the greatest forgetting charm anyone has witnessed and you won't even recognize your arse from your elbow, do I make myself clear?" They both silently nodded. "Good, you may go."

Hermione walked out with Ron and felt relieved that she at least had a mystery of a different sort to now unravel and this one wouldn't contain Harry in the final outcome.