AN: Thank you for all the support! It is very deeply appreciated!
Hermione was in no mood to endure a scowling Mr. Snape. If she got one lecture on punctuality, she may take her father up on sprinkling the spirit with holy water.
She slammed her three overflowing paper grocery bags onto the counter. Then she allowed the three floating around her to descend at her feet.
Severus glided towards her. He opened his mouth, but seemed to think better of speaking after she glowered at him.
"You never told me that grocery stores would be hell in the evening," she growled.
"I thought you were familiar with the concept of not shopping during the busiest time," he noted.
"I shop for cat food, ice cream, and TV dinners on the weekends, usually in the early morning when I'm up and few other people are awake." She began unloading the bags. "I've never had to shop for large quantities of food on a Tuesday evening."
"You could have gone during your lunch break. It would not have been such a large crowd."
She opened her freezer and shoved the ice cream inside. "I barely get a lunch break."
"Don't you set your own hours?"
"I decide when I eat. Sometimes I don't have much time to do so."
"In other words, you are skipping meals."
"I call it delaying a meal until the evening." She jammed a TV dinner atop the ones she had already placed inside.
"Proper nutrition entails that you eat at the proper times."
"Sometimes that isn't feasible."
"It is if you decide to allocate your time wisely."
"You know, that's easy for someone in the afterlife to say 'allocate your time wisely' given you have an eternity to accomplish what you need to do, but the living are not so lucky."
"Fair enough."
She held up a bag of carrots. "Are these fresh?"
He examined them. "They look fine to me."
"Good." Hermione opened her refrigerator. "I have no idea what a fresh vegetable looks like, which is partly what took so long. At one point I was looking at onions, and these ladies were just staring at me like I was the most incompetent woman on the face of the earth. I didn't know if I wanted to hex them or curl up in a ball and forget buying anything."
His glow softened. "I wish I could have been there to guide you."
"Perhaps next time you can come with me."
"I would, but the program would not allow me to leave your house."
"Why?"
"Their reasoning isn't clear."
"They better have good reasons for not allowing you to help me." She pulled out some yogurt and set it onto a shelf. "I am starved, and I am putting my foot down on eating leftover Japanese tonight."
"It is useless to try and teach someone how to cook if they have no patience."
"Usually I have patience, but today it is spent."
"I cannot blame you," Severus replied. "That being said, you did shop successfully, so I suppose that will constitute our lesson for today."
"Thank you." She shut the refrigerator and opened a top cabinet.
Across the room, Crookshanks let out a small meow.
"Yes, I'll take care of you soon," She called before putting the bread and rice away.
Crookshanks glared at her before lying down on the floor.
"It was difficult not to shop while in the freezer aisle. Everything looked so good I wanted to buy it all."
"I should have probably mentioned that one should not shop while famished."
"Aside from a few TV dinners, I only bought what was on the list."
"How many TV dinners did you buy?"
She blushed. "Four."
"That is not completely terrible."
"Perhaps, but I also bought some mini tacos, some microwavable egg rolls, and some potstickers."
He shook his head. "Your grade has fallen from an Outstanding to an Exceeded Expectations."
"That isn't such a terrible grade given the circumstances."
"That is just my first impulse. Upon careful consideration though…"
She furrowed her eyebrows.
His expression remained impassive. "You could have done worse."
"Yes." She sighed before opening the fridge again. "Next time, I will schedule my shopping trip for when it is less busy, and research how to tell if a fruit of vegetable is fresh."
"I can help you with the latter. If you can give me a list of fruits and vegetables I can explain how to determine their ripeness," he replied as she pulled out some leftover teriyaki steak.
"I would like that very much."
Crookshanks let out another meow.
"I'm coming," Hermione ran across the room and pulled the cat food out. "I didn't forget about you."
As she poured the food into a bowl, the cat purred.
"There." Hermione put the bag away. "Feel better?"
The half-kneazle continued to eat.
"If it makes you feel better, I detested shopping when I was alive too," he began.
"I can understand why now." She replied. "I used to wonder why you were so irritable when I was a teenager. Now I understand and can relate."
"I was irritable because I was a double spy who had to deal with dunderheaded students. I can only hope your life is not as horrid as mine was."
"No." She exhaled. "My life is more pleasant than yours was."
The fireplace erupted.
"Sometimes I feel like my current problems are petty complaints. After going through a war, I understand what horrid prejudice is. Yet I am upset about some kid throwing a tantrum in aisle three?"
"Temper tantrums are horrid to witness though," Severus replied. "Especially when the child starts screaming and tossing items."
"Exactly. Still, they aren't a war."
"True, but I always did have a degree of sympathy for the hapless parent. Merlin knows if I couldn't control an unruly adolescent it must be all that much harder to silence a toddler."
Her voice grew softer. "I suppose I hadn't thought of it that way."
"Hermione!"
She groaned before strolling over to the fireplace. Judging by the warmth in the room Severus was close behind.
"Yes, Harry?" She looked over the hearth into the flames.
"Can I stop by for a second?"
"Why?"
"I need to talk to you about something."
She glanced at Severus.
"I can go if you need me to," the spirit began.
"Why can't you stay and listen in?"
"Is that what you want?"
"Hermione, are you there?"
"Yes, I do," Hermione replied.
"Fine, but I will not be in the living room. It could prove distracting if I was staring you down."
"Okay."
Severus floated into the kitchen.
"Alright, you can come in." She replied before backing away.
Harry stepped across the hearth, a book in his hand. "Thank you."
"That's fine, but I am need to make you aware that I'm eating dinner soon, so I may need to eat in front of you."
Harry brushed himself off. "I thought you'd already eaten."
"Usually I've eaten by now, but tonight I went grocery shopping."
His eyes bulged. "Since when did you go grocery shopping?"
"It doesn't matter."
"I'm sorry, I won't stay long if you need to eat." He took a deep breath. "I just needed to talk to someone."
"Sure," she answered. "Is there a problem with Luna?"
"Oh no, she's perfectly fine, as is James." His voice grew softer. "Still, this is a problem she wouldn't fully understand."
"I mean you no offense, but what makes you think I'd understand it any better?"
"Because you were there for this."
"What do you mean?"
"Have you read this?" Harry held up the book he'd been carrying.
Her stomach sank upon reading the cover. "I don't read trash written by Rita Skeeter."
"I know, but I wanted to see what they said about Professor Snape in case I needed to defend him, so I decided to check it out."
"What did you discover?"
"I wish he had an estate so they could sue her for slander."
"I'm sure a lot of people wish they could sue her for slander."
"This is beyond anything she's ever written though." He trudged towards her sofa. "There isn't a word of this which is true."
"What did she say?" She sat beside him.
"First she said that he lost his virginity to my mother, then it said they were carrying on an affair up to the day she died. She even implied that I might have been his."
"It sounds like you could sue for slander then, if not for yourself, for your mum."
"I'm not bothered by that honestly. Anyone who's taken one look at me knows who my father is."
"True."
"What upset me the most was how he is was painted as needlessly cruel and not as a man trying to protect as many students as he could. She painted him as someone who had no feelings, no heart, and no soul. He was painted as an opportunist who only wanted to be on the winning side of the war, hence the reason he was a double spy."
"I thought that described Lucius."
"It does, but none of that applies to Professor Snape." He hung his head. "He was a hero, not some fiend like this book portrays him as. She said nothing about the abuse he endured as a child or the way he saved Draco from killing Dumbledore. She implied he killed Dumbledore because he was jealous and wanted to be headmaster. That isn't what happened at all."
"I know." She put a hand on his back.
"He's a hero." Harry's voice cracked. "He needs to be honored as one, not denounced as some semi-traitor. He needs to be allowed to rest in peace, not have his name dragged through the mud."
She began to rub his back.
"I feel like I need to do something to clear his name, but I don't know what that is."
"I don't know either."
"I just want him to have the respect he deserves." A tear fell from Harry's eyes. "Is that too much to ask?"
"Apparently."
Harry put his hands in his face.
"I'm leaving."
She glanced up.
"You and Potter are having a deep discussion, and I do not want to interrupt. I should leave and allow you to continue on with your evening."
She turned to Harry, whose body was now shaking. Then she turned to Severus, whose glow was dull. All she could do was mouth "okay."
With that, Severus disappeared, leaving a grieving Harry in his wake.