AN: Another ones going in to post, you can say it I'm going weird. Happy reading.

Chapter 11

Harry and Ron were correct that Hermione could be found in the library; she was sat alone with a melancholy aura around her. She scowled at him as he approached.

"Go away."

"Look I know you're angry with me, but I am not going to leave you like this. Besides I'm upset with me for upsetting you."

"That's ridiculous."

"Yeah it is. But that not the point right now, no one else could have done that potion at all, let alone with the amount of time you had. You can brew Hermione; not even Malfoy can brew like you can."

"I can't brew like you can."

"No one can do that Hermione. It's a family trait I'm afraid. Any other subject you would have won, I'm a potions master, it's my one strength in magic. Nothing real like charms or transfiguration; I barely passed defence last time, but potions is my calling."

"Who else knows you're really you?"

"The heads of houses, Poppy, the headmaster obviously and Potter."

"You know he's ok with you calling him Harry?"

"Old habit, I guess."

"You're more insufferable than I am."

"That's true. You know Minerva used to call me that when I was a student; I always took it as a compliment."

"Are you trying to say you've been complimenting me for nearly five years, and no one has noticed not even me?"

"Obviously."

"You have got to be the weirdest person I have ever met, sir."

"Not teaching at the moment, remember."

"You're so weird."

"Shall I take that as a compliment?" Snape glanced at a clock on the wall of the library behind Hermione's head, he paled as noticed that they had nearly missed lunch. There was one thing that the headmaster didn't appreciate was when his teachers missed a meal, even if Snape wasn't teaching. "We should really get to lunch, the headmaster does not like his teacher missing a meal even if I am fourteen for the time being." They made no movement to leave the library despite Snape stating that it was probably a good idea to do so.

"You have got to be hating this." Snape stared at Hermione as if she had lost her mind for a moment.

"Really? What on earth gave you the idea that I, someone who prides themselves on their mind, would want to learn everything they already know again?"

"You do know your sarcasm can be quite biting sometimes?"

"I want it to be."

"Why?"

"That way people leave me alone."

"Surely you don't want to be alone all the time?"

"Miss Granger, did you momentarily forget who you are talking to?"

"No, you're Severus Snape. Not going to forget that in a hurry."

"I was not always so cold to people, Hermione." Snape was answering questions in an order that Hermione had not asked them and as much as it confused her, she did realise that Snape was slowly letting her in.

"Can I tell Harry, that I know its you?" Snape shrugged; it was an odd teenage movement from the normally controlled man. "You won't be spying, again will you?"

"I have no idea where you got that from Miss Granger, but I suppose we shall see what the headmaster says."

"Do you always do what Professor Dumbledore says?"

"Do you honestly think that someone like me is going to argue with the might that is Albus Dumbledore?"

"I think you could hold your own."

"Well thank you, I think. But I'm not going to try."

"Are you a Gryffindor or not?"

"I am a chimera, Miss Granger. Part Slytherin, part Gryffindor. Lion and Snake."

"With the loyalty of a badger."

"I do have the animals colour scheme. Black and white."

"So, where does the yellow come from?"

"No idea." Snape finally stood up and headed from the library. In general direction of the great hall and the last of lunch. Hermione ran to catch up. When they got to the Gryffindor table, Hermione leaned over to Harry whispering that she knew. Harry just nodded, indicating that he already knew that she knew. Ron rightly was confused by the situation, since he hadn't quite connected that Snape was in fact, well Snape. After grabbing a sandwich Hermione checked the timetable for herself, Ron, Harry and Snape; they all had Defence Against the Dark Arts with a woman who looked like a pink toad. No one had paid her any attention much to her disappointment since the sorting feast a few ago, and to be honest even the narrator forgot she was supposed to be here.