AN: Only seven more to go, wow I've nearly done. Enjoy reading this and the disclaimer.

Chapter 10

Hermione did indeed find Snape; he was curled up in a tight ball under the window in his room in Gryffindor common room. He had a blanket wrapped around him.

"Snape?" He just glared at Hermione.

"I don't deal well with people, least of all happy people… I know you think you know something Miss Granger, but you're not the insufferable know-it-all I've led you to believe you are over the years."

"I was right? You are the Professor." Hermione's voice was far too gleeful for Snape, who immediately thought back over what he had said. His eyes widened, he mouthed a few curse words and sighed as if resigning himself to his fate.

"I miss my life, Granger."

"Is being you really that bad?"

"It was the first time around, yes. I may be trying to sort through some things as I go this time around, but I will always still be me. Grey and sickly seem to suit me this time too."

"You're not actually sick, are you?"

"I am cursed with an ill personality, Granger. And my magic is grey, I'm too dark for the light and too light for the dark. My magic works in the shadows of this castle."

"Can I say that was kind of poetic?"

"I'm not just a Potions Master, you know; speaking of let's get to Potions. I want to know if the headmaster has kept up to date with certain academic studies over the years it has been awhile since he actually taught anything after all."

"What did he teach?"

"Transfiguration. Professor McGonagall apprenticed under him when she was younger."

"Really?"

"Indeed."

"Who did you apprentice under?"

"Someone whose dead now."

"Should I say I'm sorry; or were they a bit of a bastard?"

"Master Zima was certainly of a wintery disposition and more than a bit of a bastard. That man gave me just as many scars as my father." Snape could see Hermione's eyes widen as they left the safety of the empty common room. "And no, they are not what I was screaming about."

"I wasn't…"

"Going to ask? You would have eventually. It's easier my way; you can tell the boys if you want Granger. I do owe Potter one anyway, and no, I am not answering why that is yet." Their sudden silence carried them all the way to the dungeon, and they didn't have to wait long for the bright robes of the headmaster to arrive for the lesson.

When the door did open, the headmaster seemed upset, and Alan was trying hard not to throw up from his facial expression.

"I had forgotten that no one had been in here since Professor Snape's incident." The headmaster said no more on the subject, but Harry and Hermione looked concernedly at the young Snape. With a flick of his wand, Dumbledore had Snape's classroom cleared in the blink of an eye. Alan's eyebrow rose at what he deemed the headmaster's lack of respect for his space. Snape then noticed one of his own experimentative recipes on the board. He swallowed anxiously fully aware that this was not the potion the headmaster thought it was.

"Sir, if I might. That potion on the board is not what you think it is."

"Is that so, Mr Snape?"

"Yes sir, that's a potion for liquified bombarda; which isn't even finished yet. Not the shrinking potion. Not even another master would be able to complete that potion. Severus likes to keep his notes coded, and with good reason; others have stolen works from him before." Snape could see the Headmaster paling as he spoke.

"I had no idea that Severus was so…"

"Experimentative?" Dumbledore just nodded. "I know his code, if you want me to find what you're actually looking for sir?" Again, Dumbledore stayed silent and nodded, handing Snape his own notebook as he did so. It didn't take Alan long at all to find and decode the page he needed. There was silence as Snape flicked his own wand and the correct recipe appeared on the board in Professor Snape's own handwriting, although there were minimal differences between how the odd letter was formed, no one would have been able to say with absolute certainty that they weren't by the same person. However, Harry and Hermione knew the truth, and it seemed like Hermione was still up for the challenge of defeating the master at his own game; not that she would succeed of course.

In only forty-three minutes Snape had completed the potion using his own recipe compared to Hermione needing the entire one hundred minutes using the official version, she stared at Snape who somehow looked apologetic, smug and embarrassed all at once. Hermione ran out of the potion's classroom to somewhere without a word and close to tears; no one had beaten her academically in years now, and in a way Snape's humbleness with a cauldron made it worse. When the bell rang, Snape turned to Harry and Ron.

"I should apologise, any idea where she would have gone?"

"Library, bathroom, girl's dormitory." Snape sighed in away that clearly said hopefully library. He then ran off at a sprint. Dumbledore stared after him with a sorrowful expression.

"I have not seen him move like that in a long time." Only Harry understood that the headmaster meant Severus and not Alan. The others looked at the old wizard as if he was beginning to lose his mind, which he wasn't. "I hope Miss Granger forgives him. No one can beat a Snape at potions its in his blood." The class filed out with the entertainment now over. Harry and Ron stayed briefly with the headmaster. Harry looked at Dumbledore.

"Sir? What did you mean about it's in his blood?"

"Severus Snape, Mr Potter, comes from a long line of potion brilliance. The Prince's are one of the sacred pureblood lines when twenty-eight was thirty-five. The name died with Severus' mother when she married a muggle called Snape. Severus is half blood, but he has the grace of his pureblood ancestors, his personality is pure Prince; but his nose and eyes are his father. Much as they hated each other."

"Sir? How far does his family go back?"

"All the way to Merlin, Mr Potter. I am certain, Mr Weasley will fill you in on the importance of that when Miss Granger and Mr Snape return from their conversation." With that the headmaster ushered Harry and Ron out of the potions classroom and sealed the room again for when Severus was an adult again.