Chapter 8: A Muggle Milestone With A Magical Twist
Over the course of the next week, Severus tried his best to keep his distance from Granger. He completely ignored his apprentice and her tenacious, ever-waving right arm during regular Potions class; and for their Tuesday lesson, he simply sent her to the greenhouses to collect some Mandrake leaves as his supply had run low.
By the time their next lesson rolled around, however, he could no longer avoid the witch. The Hospital Wing was in sudden dire need of Wiggenweld Potion, causing the matron to request such a large quantity of bottles that Snape by no means could have handled it all himself. "I will need to have a word with Poppy after dinner," the half-blood thought pettishly as he carefully measured out the required amount of salamander blood. "She ought to keep a better eye on her stock and place orders earlier. I simply cannot get any proper work done like this! My research sure is suffering terribly under these ludicrous conditions …" Of course, he would have never admitted that he was mostly trying to dodge long lab hours with the Gryffindor Princess.
On the other side of the classroom, Granger was in the midst of simultaneously stirring three gigantic copper cauldrons with a little help from her wand. She almost seemed to be in a world of her own, with her brows deeply furrowed in concentration. Severus also noticed that the skin of her lips was looking horribly battered. Needless to say, he had observed her nervous lip biting habit years ago; but today, he was purposely trying to keep his eyes away from her and her stupid, all too distracting mouth.
Just as Snape was about to start calculating how much flobberworm mucus would be needed for the potion, the heavy classroom door suddenly swung open. "Severus, my old friend!" the headmaster's familiar voice resonated from the dungeon walls, causing him to wince. In the name of Merlin, that loony fool was the last thing he needed right now!
Looking up, he saw the infamous grey-bearded wizard strutting towards his desk. If the old man hadn't been wearing bright green robes with metallic purple embroidery paired with a ridiculous-looking pointy hat, he might even have been a majestic sight to behold. Severus rolled his eyes melodramatically before giving his employer a curt nod of acknowledgement. "Headmaster … What can I do for you?"
Once Dumbledore came to a halt in front of him, Severus could see that strange twinkle in his eyes that he knew all too well. What is this ancient madman up to now? "My boy, I always enjoy getting the chance to converse with you," he said with glee. "Today, however, I have come to see the lovely Miss Granger. As I can see, the two of you are getting along just great!" Severus thought that he could see his mouth form a slight smirk.
Granger's head shot up in surprise. "Me?" she asked, a bit flustered. "But why, Professor? Did something happen? Am I needed as Head Girl? Did Harry get hurt during Quidditch practice? Or Ron? Ginny?" One could almost sense her thoughts spinning through the room at lightning speed.
The headmaster smiled softly. "Now, now, Miss Granger, no need to worry! Remember, the dangerous times are over now, aren't they?" Snape saw her sigh in relief and nod her head, as if to reassure herself. Trying to remove himself from the situation, he walked over to the cauldrons that the young woman had now abandoned and added a handful of lionfish spines to their bubbling content. Dumbledore continued, "In fact, I am here to celebrate a joyous occasion! After all, it has come to my attention that there is a very important day coming up rather soon; and since I unfortunately won't be on school grounds tomorrow, I thought that I should come and congratulate you today."
While Granger seemed pleasantly surprised and even blushed a little at these words, Severus was more than confused. "Congratulate?"
"Why, yes, Severus! Don't tell me you weren't aware of the fact that it is Miss Granger's birthday tomorrow?"
The Potions Master curled his lip in annoyance and redirected his attention to the potion before him, which was now in the process of turning bright yellow. "I was not. And quite frankly, I do not see why this should be of any concern or importance to me."
"But birthdays are always of great importance!" the flamboyant man exclaimed almost dramatically. "Besides, need I remind you that it is tradition for apprentices to receive a present from their tutor on their special day? I'm sure that you must have stumbled across this wonderful practice at some point during your research."
Come to think of it, he did recall coming across something like that when re-reading Hogwarts: A History following that fateful staff meeting two and a half weeks ago. Severus groaned. He felt like he was being punished for everything he had ever done wrong in life. Not only was he being forced to closely work with the arguably most annoying person he'd ever met, but now he also had to present her with a gift – like he was one of her idiotic little friends! And what should he even give to her? How should he, a 37-year-old man who had never had a proper relationship with a woman in his entire life, know what today's girls were into? He grimaced at the thought of going down to Hogsmeade and buying heart-shaped candies from Honeydukes or, even worse, standing between the racks in Gladrags Wizardwear and thinking about what piece of clothing would fit the Muggle-born's well-formed body the best.
Dumbledore for one seemed highly amused by his younger colleague's reaction. "I'm sure you will be able to find something that is just perfect for our equally as perfect student. Now, Miss Granger, I wish you a very happy birthday, and, of course, I did not come empty-handed either. I think I made a great pick if I dare say so myself!"
He handed her a little pouch similar to the one that Snape had received at the beginning of term, only that this time it was made of neon yellow fabric with little light blue pearls sewn around the hem. The girl cautiously untied it with her delicate hands, revealing a thin golden bracelet with only one small charm dangling from it: a glossy white cowry shell.
"I came across this lovely specimen this summer during a nice, long walk along the French Riviera. If I recall correctly, you used to spend many happy days there with your family before you entered the wizarding world, is that right?"
Her honey brown eyes lit up immediately. "Yes! Oh, thank you so much, Professor! What a thoughtful gift – I will treasure it forever!" The headmaster had a content look on his face as he watched her promptly put on her new piece of jewellery.
"I do not want to ruin this precious moment," Snape suddenly interjected, sarcasm clearly dripping from his stern voice. "But I do believe that Miss Granger is here to help me brew, not to celebrate a birthday … Especially one that is still hours away at that."
Alarmed, his apprentice hurried back to tend to the cauldrons, whereas Dumbledore merely chuckled. Making his way to the classroom door, he turned back around one more time.
"Oh, and Severus?" he called out, causing the Potions professor to tear his eyes away from his cutting board and look up. "Thank you so very much for so quickly taking care of this whole Wiggenweld Potion situation. Poppy sure seemed terribly upset with me when I accidentally knocked her entire supply off the shelves in her storage room last night. I did feel awfully bad about it, of course; but what can I say – I guess we all just get a bit clumsier with age!" Severus glowered at the older man as he gave him a mischievous wink before disappearing into the dark dungeons at long last.
The next half hour was fortunately free of any further disruptions. He and Granger were able to finish brewing the potion relatively soon and were now carefully pouring the thick liquid into cylindric-shaped glass bottles. It was then that the Head Girl decided to break the silence.
"You know, Professor, you don't really need to give me anything. It's not an important birthday anyways," she said hoarsely.
Not taking his gaze off his work for even a second, Severus waited awhile before answering. Eventually, he replied, "Miss Granger, believe me when I say that there is nothing I would rather do. However, I am already forced to take part in this imbecile apprenticeship programme as it is. So I might as well participate to the best of my abilities." After another short pause, he added, "Not that I have much of a choice. I would never hear the end of it if the headmaster found out that I didn't eagerly play along with his silly antics."
"Oh, um, well …" Granger stuttered. "I would like to thank you in advance then, sir."
Ignoring what she'd just said, he continued, "And if there is even such a thing as an important birthday, the eighteenth would surely be one of them. After all, I do believe that it equals coming of age in the Muggle world."
He could see her frown out of the corner of his eye. "Certainly. But most witches and wizards do not seem to attach value to this. I reckon that the majority of them don't even know that there is a difference between the wizarding and the Muggle world in this regard."
Snape snorted. "I do hope that I would be aware of it, having a Muggle father myself!"
He only noticed his mistake when he saw her jaw almost drop to the floor, and then his breathing hitched. He had just shared personal information with a student! Having always been a very private and reserved man, this was something that he'd never ever done before, not even with his favourite Slytherins – and yet he had just now recklessly slipped up in front of one of Potter's main sidekicks. He cursed under his breath.
"Miss Granger, it looks like there are only a few phials left to fill. I believe that you should go now."
He could see that it took the teenager a few moments to regain her composure before she finally bobbed her head and started to gather her belongings. Once she had left the classroom, Severus put his head in his hands – he could already feel a migraine coming.
Hours later, Hermione made her way from the Astronomy Tower back to her private quarters. As soon as she was inside, she dropped her heavy bag onto the floor and let herself fall onto her bed. She was utterly exhausted. It was almost midnight and it had been a very long day. While she had always been a night owl, she certainly needed her sleep during the week.
She remained in this position for a few minutes before she reluctantly sat up and took off her uniform. She stood up, walked over to her closet and pulled out some worn-out pyjamas which she had received as a Christmas gift from Mrs Weasley nearly three years ago. They were terribly ugly, being of a washed-out pink colour and an atrocious floral pattern, but they were comfortable and Hermione loved them to pieces.
After finishing her nightly routine consisting of washing her face, brushing her teeth, packing her bag for the following day and casting a few protective spells – an old, hard-to-kick habit of wartime – the Gryffindor finally slipped into bed. With her eyelids already feeling heavy, she quickly wrapped herself in her fluffy blanket and pulled a happily purring Crookshanks to her chest. She'd never felt this tired before.
Hermione had almost fallen asleep when the feline in her arms suddenly started to squirm, hissing loudly. Confused and a bit drowsy, the girl turned around and noticed one of the school's owls sitting on her windowsill. Her eyebrows knitted in surprise as she begrudgingly got back up and walked over to it. Who in their right mind would send out something so late? Exchanging the animal's package for a few tasty bird treats, she closed the window before getting back into bed. As far as she could see, the parcel hadn't come with any sort of note; and the only thing she uncovered after removing the brown wrapping paper was a rather old-looking book.
"Lumos," she whispered. With the tip of her wand glowing faintly, she was able to take a better look at the publication in front of her. The title was almost completely faded, but she was still able to decipher it: Long-forgotten Secrets of the Mayan Wizarding Culture – Potions, Spells and More.
Suddenly, the famous young witch was wide-awake and even let out a minor shriek. Unbelievable! In her hands, she was holding one of only twelve known copies of one of the most sought-after literary masterpieces from the early 19th century. It was so rare that some magical scholars would quite literally give an arm and a leg just to catch a short glimpse of it. And now it seemed as though Hogwarts' on-site know-it-all was in possession of an exemplar – Hermione was in complete shock.
Even more shocking, however, was the fact that she had actually seen this priceless book in person before – hiding in plain sight on one of many shelves in Professor Snape's sitting room.