Author note: Here ya go. A bit more understanding on what's happening, but at the same time a bit more confusing too. Sorry. Hope you like it!
"Look, Hermione…I'm sorry. I didn't mean to really."
"It's okay, Ron."
"Has he come to you yet?"
Hermione set down the papers in front of her and pinched the bridge of her nose, much like the object of her ire. "No, not yet."
"Anything I can do?"
"NO!" She sighed. "No, Ron, there isn't anything you can do to make this any better. If he doesn't want to see me, then fine."
Ron walked around the table and sat down next to her. It was her instinct to scoot away from him slightly. He placed his hands on the table top in full view. "After everything the two of you have been through…"
"I know, Ron. Just…just go to dinner with Harry. Give him my excuses. I have too much to finish up here."
The childhood friends both stood and made for opposite directions; Ron to the door, Hermione to the supplies closet. He turned abruptly, approached her from behind, and embraced her gently. "Think of me. If he never comes around, consider me."
Hermione nodded almost imperceptibly, but the creak of the large wooden door across the room made her head turn. Severus stood in the doorway.
"I see you did as I instructed. You have yet to go to hell, though. I'll leave you to it."
The slam of the door resounding for eternity. Hermione began to cry again. Ron decided to leave when she pushed him away. This was just getting worse.
"Five twelve inch rolls due on my desk by Monday," the potions master barked to the trembling second years. "Now leave."
They scurried every direction in fear of their lives. Snape had never been so evil. He deducted more points today then ever before. Even his prize Slytherin pupil had twenty points taken away for not chopping the roots before peeling them. Like that made a difference. She pointed that out, and that's when he waved his wand to the door. He amplified the sound of the emeralds falling from the enormous hour glass in the hall upstairs. He then whispered the amount. The poor girl paled.
When the last of the students exited the dungeon room, Severus picked up the vials they left behind and began testing each one. For some reason, they were all within parameters. He sighed again. Proof that being hard and calculating was just what these dunderheads needed to make a perfect potion. Why couldn't anyone else use the same tactics? He sat back down at his desk when he was through and began to massage away the headache that was not going to go away soon. He didn't hear the door. Or her footsteps.
A glimpse from the corner of his eye caught a vial in view. A headache potion. He looked up to see Hermione at the back of the room in the seat she used when she was in school.
"He was comforting me. That's all. Nothing happened."
"Like I care."
"If you didn't, then you would have stayed in that doorway and waited for him to leave as if the exchange was none of your business."
"If I cared, I would have sent him to oblivion."
She smiled. "But you knew I'd kill you for that."
"Maybe I should have then."
"Severus."
"Miss Granger."
"Hermione."
"Miss Granger."
She harrumphed and folded her arms across her chest. "Fine, Professor Snape, I have a proposition for you. I will be in my quarters at approximately seven fifteen this evening. If you would like to join me, we can discuss what makes it so impossible for you to love me. And I will do the same for you."
She stood up and left, knowing full well that his curiosity will win out. Since when did she think of him as impossible to love. He had to find out what she was referring to.
Later that evening, Severus found himself at her door.
"Enter."
Severus' eyebrow piqued at the similar tone and verbiage he often used, however Hermione couldn't see it.
"And put that eyebrow back in its place, Professor Snape."
Maybe so. Severus did so by fixing his scowl and jerking the door open. He didn't bother shutting it behind him as he stomped up to her desk. She took the initiative and waved her wand. The boom reverberated down every hall of the castle.
Severus took a seat opposite Hermione. It was as if the roles were reversed. She sat behind the desk as he sat in a student's seat. This made him extremely uncomfortable, but he had suffered worse. He glimpsed around the surface in front of him. A neat stack of papers set to his right, all marked with a bright red ink. He observed her ink well in Gryffindor colors and sighed imperceptibly. The now broken time turner she had used all those years ago was twisted in something similar to a ball, lying on her desk to remind her of her mistakes and accomplishments. Something white caught his eye to his left. It was a glass box filled with a white substance. A light mist had gathered at the top of the box and condensation collected around the outer perimeter. A delicately embossed lace handkerchief was placed underneath to catch the droplets of water that fell from its sides.
"Snow."
Severus looked up with her remark questioningly.
"Snow. I charmed it to snow inside that box so that I am always reminded of that day in the car. I lost so many memories that I couldn't help but keep reminders of everything that ever happened to me in case I lost my memory again."
Severus had the humility enough to be chagrined. It was he who caused the amnesia in the first place.
"Hermione…"
"Hermione now? When did this occur?"
The scowl was back. That's what Hermione wanted. She wanted him to be angry. He was always truthful when he was angry. She didn't want him to hide any underlying reasons for his answers. She wanted it all out in the open. Goading him was the only way to get that.
He seethed, "Miss Granger, I haven't the time for school age games. If there isn't anything important to discuss I will be retiring to my chambers." He began to stand.
"Severus, I want to know what's happened. The two of us have become so distant. And don't give me any of that subconscious bullshit either. I want to know if there was something I've done to push you away from me."
He sat back down and put his head in his hands. "No, you didn't do anything."
"Then what?"
He didn't speak. Hermione left her seat and went to him. She knelt in front of him and pried his hands away from his head so she could see his face. "What happened?"
"The purebloods."
Her eyes narrowed. "What do you mean the purebloods?"
"There have been rumors that our relationship will never be acknowledge amongst the pureblood lines because of your ancestry. Close and trustworthy acquaintances have even spoke of…"
She placed her hands on either of his face, forcing him to look her in the eye. She threatened Legilimens with her actions, but conceded. "Spoke of what?"
"See for yourself."
Hermione swallowed hard and spoke the incantation. Immediately, her mind's eye was thrust into a large room full of people she didn't recognize. She saw a portly fellow approach her range of vision.
"I told you to take care of it, Severus."
"I will. But it will take time. She is not easily dismissed."
"I have heard it from three people now, boy. Do it or they will for you."
The site before her clouded and she appeared the next moment in a dark room. The curtains were burgundy and the floor was mahogany. The fixtures around the room were tarnished gold. A small fire in the hearth played with the shadows on the walls.
"I will begin tonight. She will hate me before the evening is over."
"Good. I would hate to think of what I would have had to do to keep the two of you apart. She cannot be in your life. She is a mudblood. Make sure it is finished, friend. Or I will have to kill her."
Hermione jumped from the floor and began to back away from Severus. She was in such shock she could not blink to break the bond of their minds. The scene morphed once more.
"Just come here," the familiar voice sounded.
"Are you sure she will walk in?"
"Yes, I heard her approaching a moment ago. She will see us."
"And it will work?"
"It had better. For her sake. Just start kissing me."
Hermione's view changed briefly. She could see them in the mirror across the room. Hermione could see the love her life wrapped in the arms of buxom beauty thoroughly engulfing her mouth with his. The tears began to stream down her flushed cheeks.
Suddenly, Severus pushed the woman away. "She should have entered by now. This isn't working."
"She so young, though. Maybe treat her like the child she is and come to my place instead. Ground her, send her to her room. Then come see me. I'm sure I could give you…"
"Shut up!"
Severus left the room and ran into Remus in the hall. Hermione took Severus' view again.
"What are you doing in here with her? How dare you do that to Hermione?"
"Remus, will just shut up! I have to get to Hermione away from me. Her life has been threatened, and I have to get her as far away as I can. Necelia gave me an idea. I need your help."
The memory ended as she heard Severus and Remus muttering. She understood. It was all a play. A rather well acted play, at that. He had tried to tell her that he still loved her, but he was doing everything he could to frustrate her into leaving. The scary thing was it was working.
She finally blinked. "Why didn't you just tell me? Why didn't you take me away?"
Sighing, he looked down to his hands in his lap. "I had hoped you would have left on your own before it got worse."
Hermione sat down and tried to absorb all the information. "You kissed another woman."
His eyes shot up to meet hers.
"You kissed another woman! I cannot believe you did this to me! How could you kiss someone else? We're through Severus Snape. I never want to lay eyes on you again! Get out of my classroom!"
She grabbed him up and shoved him towards the door with as much force as she could. But for some reason, she stopped him just short of the threshold.
"Block everything but that. Show me finding the kiss in your memory and my outburst. Block everything else. Do it like you did when you didn't want Voldemort to know the full truth. If anyone looks, they will see me telling you to go to hell."
His curious look caught Hermione backing up and taking a defensive stance.
"GO TO HELL, PROFESSOR SNAPE!"
The door barely missed crushing his nose as it slammed shut.